A CRITICAL OUTLINE 



OF 



THE LITERATURE OF GERMANY. 



by , a 

ALBEKT M. SELSS, Ph.D., 

EX-SCHOLAR AND M.A., TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. 




LONDON: 

LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, & GREEN. 
DUBLIN: M'GLASHAN & GILL, UPPER SACKVILLE-STREET. 
1865. 



DUBLLN : 

^Jrintrtj at the Ctnibcrsiin JQicss, 

HY M, II. GILL. 



PREFACE. 



HIS introduction to German Literature has been written 
lainly for the use of those who require such aid in pre- 
pari y for any of the various Competitive Examinations 
of the day. It is hoped that it will also prove acceptable 
to a more general class of readers, who may desire some 
acquaintance with the classic authors of Germany. A 
large experience with pupils in the University of Dublin 
has convinced the Author that no existing book on the 
subject aptly answers the object which this little volume 
is intended to serve. One principal defect in such ma- 
nuals as are already in use is the exaggerated impor- 
tance given to the earlier portions of the Literature at. 
the expense of the later. Far too much stress is usually 
laid on the Mediaeval Legends, and a great deal of un- 
necessary criticism is expended on certain minor writers ; 
whilst but very scanty notice is taken of those important 
authors and subjects which, in modern times, have 
claimed our chief attention. In the present work this 
error has been avoided ; and an effort has been made to 

A 2 



VI 



PREFACE. 



offer to Students a well-balanced account of the entire 
subject, with such conciseness as may not be inconsistent 
with precision of form and distinctness of colouring. 

The following pages seek to attain their object by the 
twofold method of historical narrative and comparative 
criticism. On the one hand, they chronicle the successive 
developments of German Literature — its first glimmer- 
ings and early dawn, its morning brightness with tem- 
porary obscurations, its meridian splendour, and, lastly, 
the sultry afternoon heat which seems now to oppress 
the literary atmosphere of Deutschland. On the other 
hand, it has not been forgotten to compare the literary 
treasures of Germany with the analogous productions of 
other countries ; for without such criticism the Student's 
information would lack breadth and accuracy. Extracts 
from the various authors have been introduced with a very 
sparing hand, partly from a fear of unduly swelling the 
volume, but principally from a conviction of their gene- 
ral inutility. Such selected passages are usually skipped 
by the reader, especially if in a foreign language, as they 
must be in a work of this character ; and, besides, no ade- 
quate idea of a writer can be gathered from a few frag- 
mentary passages. What notion of Schiller can be 
derived from a scene of one of his dramas, or of J ean 
Paul from a few pages of his novels? As well study 
zoology in the skin of a leopard, or architecture in a 
brick of St. Paul's. The Author has, therefore, imported 
into the work no " elegant extracts," except such as 



PREFACE. 



Vll 



were absolutely required to illustrate some peculiarity 
of dialect, metre, &c, or to fortify and elucidate some 
particular statement in the text ; but the paucity of ex- 
tracts demands, in compensation, a fuller analysis of the 
chief characteristics of German Literature, as contrasted 
with others, and with their English and French rivals. 
This, therefore, has been supplied. 

An introductory chapter contains a brief history of 
the German Language and its Dialects — a most useful 
topic, generally passed over, or inadequately treated, in 
other manuals of this kind. Of the German Drama a 
succinct, but comprehensive account, has been given, 
with original comments upon it, in relation to the 
Theatres of other lands. The four chief writers — Lessing, 
Schiller, Gothe, and Heine — have been discussed at 
some length ; and in the final chapter will be found a 
survey of the Philosophical Literature of Germany. Under 
this last head the reader need be under no apprehension. 
Unambitious of the labours of Sisyphus, the Author has 
not attempted to follow out this branch of his subject 
into its labyrinthic ramifications, but has simply indi- 
cated, with sufficient distinctness, the chief masters of 
Teutonic Philosophy, with their principal publications, 
as well as their main tenets. Having himself sat at the 
feet of Schelling, Gabler, and Trendelenburg, in his 
student days at the University of Berlin, the author 
enters with confidence on this part of his task. 

Besides German sources, the principal English autho- 



Vlll 



PREFACE. 



rities Jiave been consulted, particularly Mr. Carlyle's 
"Life of Schiller," Mr. Lewes's "Life of Gothe," Pro- 
fessor Max Miiller's " German Classics," and the Kev. 
F. Metcalfe's "History of German Literature," based 
on the German of Vilmar. 

The Author, with these observations, commits the 
volume to the indulgence of the public. 

A. M. S. 



Trinity College, Dublin, 
Easter, 1865. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

ON THE GERMAN LANGUAGE : ITS HISTORY AND CHARACTER. 

Name of Hoch-Deutsch explained —History of Nieder-Deutsch — 
When and why it was superseded — Few Remains of Writings in this 
Dialect — Its Difference from Hoch-Deutsch — History of Hoch-Deutsch, 
and its three Stages — The national Tongue fixed in Luther's time— 
General Character of the German Language — Table showing its Relation 
to other Languages, 1 



CHAPTER II. 

ON THE PERIODS AND GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF GERMAN LITERATURE. 

Zenith of literary Excellence, about 1800, a. d. — Five Periods- 
Contrast of French and German Literature — Contrast of English and 
German Literature — Theorizing Tendency of German Prose — Lyrical 
Tendency of German Poetry, . . . . 13 



CHAPTER III. 

FIRST PERIOD— THE MONASTIC AGE, FROM 350, A. D., TO 1150. 

Character of the Monastic Era — Ulfilas — Influence of Charlemagne — 
Alliterative Popular Ballads — Beowulf — Hildebrandslied — Religious 
Poetry— Muspilli— -Heliand— The learned Monks, Otfried, Notker, 
Williram, 23 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IV. 

SECOND PERIOD — THE MINNESANGER AND THE MEISTERSANGER, 
FROM 1150 TO 1534. 

I 

Character of this Period — Minne-Gesang — Versified Chronicles — 
Lay of the Nibelungen — Murder of Siegfried — Second Marriage of his 
Widow — Massacre of the Nibelungen — Origin of this Epos — Gudrun 
and other Lays — Romances about King Arthur and the Round Table — 
The three principal Minnesanger — Lyrical Poetry — Walther — Didactic 
Poetry — The Fable of Reynard — Pfaffe Amis, 35 



CHAPTER V. 



CONTINUATION OF THE SECOND PERIOD. 

Origin of Meister-Gesang — Compositions of the Meistersanger — 
Popular Poetry — Possen — Easter Plays and Carnival Plays — Hans 
Sachs, and other Meistersanger — S. Brandt's Ship of Fools — Chronicles — 
Theuerdank — The Mystics, Eckhart, Tauler, and Geiler von Kaisers- 
berg, . 53 



CHAPTER VI. 

THIRD PERIOD — THE LEARNED ERA, FROM 1534' TO 1760. 

Rise of the Universities — The Reformation — Disastrous Effect of the 
Religious War — Luther fixes the Language — Sacred Poetry, Luther, 
Dach, Flemming, Gerhard, Gryphius, Spee — Hutten — Fischart — Rol- 
lenhagen— Till Eulenspiegel, and Faust — Simplicissimus, a novel of 
the Religious War — Critical Writers — Opitz and the first Silesian 
School — Hoffmannswaldau and the second Silesians — Gottsched and 
the Saxon School — Bodmer and the Swiss School — Disciples of 
Gottsched — Gellert and the modern Fabulists of Germany, ... 63 

CHAPTER VII. 

FOURTH PERIOD — THE CLASSICAL ERA, FROM 1760 TO 1805. 

Brightest Period of German Literature — " Sturm und Drang " Move- 
ment, discarding the learned Style-— Frederick of Prussia— The four 
Poets of Weimar — The German Drama — Its Difference from the gal- 
lant and pseudo-classical Style of the French— Its Difference from the 



CONTENTS. 



xi 



Shakspearian or historico-moral Style — The German Drama exhibits 
social Conflicts — Prevalence of disinterested, or heroic Motives, over 
selfish Passions — Life and Writings of Lessing — He founds the Ger- 
man Drama — His Fragments of Wolfenbiittel — His principal Plays — 
Klopstock — Herder — The Gottingen Poets — Burger, his Ballads and 
his Munchausen — Voss, his Homer and his Louise — Wieland, his 
Novels and his Oberon — Jean Paul F. Richter, 81 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CONTINUATION OF THE FOURTH PERIOD SCHILLER'S LIFE AND WORKS. 

The Stuttgardt School — Schiller runs away — Publishes his first 
Drama — Writes History and Lyrics — Goes to Weimar — Death of 
Schiller — His Character — The Robbers — Fiesco — Kabale — Don Carlos 
— Wallenstein — Maid of Orleans— William Tell— Minor Poems, . 109 

CHAPTER IX. 

CONTINUATION OF THE FOURTH PERIOD — GOTHE's LIFE AND 
WORKS. 

His Education — His many Sweethearts— His first Drama — Werther 
— Clavigo — Goes to Weimar — Travels to Italy — His Novel of W. 
Meister— His Clandestine Marriage — His Death, and Character — 
Gotz — Iphigenia — Egmont — Tasso — Faust — Hermann und Doro- 
thea — Reineke Fuchs, 124 



CHAPTER X. 

FIFTH PERIOD— —RECENT WRITERS, FROM 1805 TO 1865. 

Polemical Character of Composition — Conservatives and Liberals— 
The Romantic School — The Schlegels — The Tale- writers — Ultramon- 
tane Poets, Redwitz — Patriotic and Liberal Writers — Korner, Uhland, 
Arndt, Riickert, Platen — Advanced Liberals, Herwegh, Freiligrath, 
Hoffmann, Kinkel, 146 

CHAPTER XI. 

CONTINUATION OF THE FIFTH PERIOD — LIFE AND WORKS OF HEINE. 



His Birth — His Education — Reisebilder — Buch der Lieder — Goes to 
Paris — His Salon — Neue Lieder — Quarrel with Borne — Private Life 
and Character, 160 



XII 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XII. 

CONCLUSION — RECENT PHILOSOPHERS AND HISTORIANS. 

German Philosophy contrasted with English — Bohme -—Leibnitz — 
Wolff — Kant — Fichte — Schelling — Hegel — Trendelenburg — Charac- 
ter of German Historiography — The Investigative Style — The Philo- 
sophical Style — Moser — J. Muller — Niebuhr — Schlosser — Ranke — 
Leo — Raumer — Menzel — Gervinus, 1 60 



GEEMAN 



LITEEATUEE. 



CHAPTEE I. 

OX THE QERHA3 LANGUAGE I ITS KISTOEY AND CHAEACTEE. 

The German Language — why called Hoclt-Deatsch. — The pre- 
sent dialect of Germany, or the modern High-German, owes 
its name of Hoeh-Deutsch to the circumstance of its having 
arisen in the higher, i. e., in the mountainous or southern por- 
tions of that country. A glance at the map of Europe will 
show that the tracts adjoining the North Sea and the Baltic 
are level, up to at least two or three hundred miles from the 
mouths of the Rhine, "Weser, Elbe, Oder, and Vistula ; while 
in the region of Bonn, Kassel, Halberstadt, and Dresden, the 
country becomes more and more hilly, until it culminates in 
the lofty scenery of the Alps. Hence a very marked difference 
between the tribes as well as the dialects of Germany, has been 
observable ever since the time of the great migration. In the 
Northern Lowlands a variety of languages, such as Dutch or 
Netherlandish, Flemish, Frisian, "Westphalian, Platt-Deutsch, 
Anglo-Saxon, and others, all denominated by the general term 
of Low-German dialects, used to be employed, and some of 
them are still in use there; while in Upper Germany, or south 
and east of the tribes aforesaid, another dialect called Hoch- 
Deutsch has always been spoken ; both again differ from the 
Scandinavian, which is the third great subdivision of Teutonic, 
and spoken in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. In the course 
of the middle ages Low- German was gradually eclipsed, and 
finally superseded by the southern dialect. That species of 

B 



2 OEEMAN LITEEATTTEE. 

Hoch-Deutsch, which established itself as the national tongue 
of all Germany, was originally the language of the Eranconians 
and Swabians ; but kindred forms of speech existed also in 
Austria, Switzerland, the Tyrol, Silesia, and Upper Saxony. 
When Pomerania, with East and West Prussia, were colonized 
by the Gferman knights, these Baltic provinces also adopted 
the Highland dialect as the idiom of their inhabitants, and 
thus the Low- German, being shut out from the Oder and 
Vistula, and all the upper regions of the country, retained for 
itself only the mouths and lower courses of the Rhine, Ems, 
Weser, and Elbe, as its peculiar domain. 

History of the Loiv- German Dialects. — Although restricted 
within these narrow limits, the Low- German tribes strictly 
maintained the peculiarities of their national tongue. When 
in the fifth and sixth centuries the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes 
migrated to England, they carried their language with them, 
to be there afterwards mixed with Scandinavian and Norman 
Erench. In the time of Charlemagne a Low- German chief- 
tain, Wittekind, a native of Westphalia, defended his inde- 
pendence with obstinacy against the superior power of the 
Eranks. After the disruption of Charlemagne's empire, the 
Lowland Saxons became one of the leading tribes of Germany. 
Their prince, Henry the Eowler, founded in 919 a.d. the first 
dynasty of Teutonic emperors, and his lineal descendants con- 
tinued to fill the throne for more than a century. We have 
every reason to suppose that, so far at least, the Low-German 
dialect was in no respect inferior to the High-German, but en- 
joyed the protection of the Saxon sovereigns as well as that of 
the clergy. At all events, it was not interfered with on the 
territory where it was domiciled. But a total change in the 
relations of the two languages took place after the year 1024, 
or at the end of the Saxon line of emperors. Eor at that time 
the imperial dignity and the chief government of the country 
passed out of the hands of the Low-Germans into those of their 
southern neighbours. Eirst the Eranconians supplied Ger- 



HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE. 



3 



many with feudal chieftains ; and when these emperors had 
reigned for a century, the leadership went still more south- 
ward, to the Swabians. It was to be expected that the princes 
of both these tribes, or the Salian and the Hohenstaufen 
emperors, would favour the High- German nationality, which 
they represented, and thus it cannot surprise us to find that 
from that epoch the Lowland dialect sank in importance, until 
it finally succumbed to its rival. Perhaps the loss of political 
prestige alone would not have been powerful enough to throw 
the Low Germans and their language into the background, had 
not other causes supervened. But in addition to their greater 
political influence and their superiority in point of numbers, 
the High-Germans also possessed greater capacity for intellec- 
tual development. The Hohenstaufen emperors became the de- 
clared patrons of German poetry ; and the knightly minstrels, 
who repaired to their court, were induced to compose verses in 
High-German, even if it did not happen to be their native 
idiom. Thus before long the Low-German dialect sank, down 
to the level of a patois, and soon it received that stigma of 
vulgarity or rusticity, which now is attached to it in the eyes 
of the present inhabitants of Germany. Eor presently we 
shall see that the Reformation only tended to establish still 
more firmly the exclusive reception of the rival and more 
favoured language. The only Low- German dialect which 
successfully withstood the encroachments of the Highland 
tongue was the Dutch, which is the national form of speech 
in Holland. All the others have long since ceased to exist as 
printed or written languages ; and except about two millions 
of country people in the JSTorth-west of Germany, they are 
only known to the comparative philologist or to the Teutonic 
antiquarian. 

, Remains of Low- German Literature, — Erom what has been 
said it will appear that the remnants of Low-German litera- 
ture can only be few, and that none can be later than the Re- 
formation, except those in the Dutch idiom, which we exclude 



4 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



from the range of our consideration. There are, however, 
frequent traces of Low-German in all the older prose and 
poetry, especially in the Hildebrandslied. Beowulf is an 
Anglo-Saxon poem, composed in Germany about 800 a. t>. 
More important is Heliand, or the Anglo-Saxon harmony of 
the Gospels, which the monk Otfried translated into his High- 
German dialect. One of the earliest Minnesanger, Heinrich 
von Yeldecke, was born on the lower Rhine ; but so ashamed 
was he to write verses in the Low- German dialect, that 
he chose the fashionable language of the day in preference 
to his native idiom. Only at times his "Westphalian pro- 
vincialisms seem to steal into the text, and to vitiate the 
even flow of his poetry. The fable of Heineke the Eox 
was composed in the Lowland dialect about 1250 a. d. after 
a Dutch model, and republished in a masterly version at 
Liibeck in 1498 by Hermann Barkhusen. Lastly, Gerhard of 
Minden paraphrased in 1350 .iEsop, or 103 fables ascribed to 
that Greek poet, in the same language. These are nearly all 
that remains of Low-German writings. Since, however, a 
nearly extinct dialect still excites a certain degree of interest, 
more especially in scholars, Low- German verses and stories 
have sometimes been composed by learned writers as a kind of 
literary curiosity. Thus Simon Each, of Konigsberg, a Protestant 
hymn- writer, composed some moral and religious poems about 
1640, which adopted the tone and language of the rural popu- 
lation in Prussia, and were, therefore, in part written in Low- 
German. The same experiment was tried by Yoss, the great 
translator of Homer, and member of the Gottingen Dichter- 
bund. He has left two idyllic poems, which are as rustic in 
their dialect as in their contents. But recently the brothers 
Grimm again thought fit to publish some specimens of Low- 
German tales. The learned authors visited the cottages of 
the Westphalian peasantry, and listened to the recitations of 
their Marchenfrauen, or story-tellers. They faithfully noted 
down both the ideas and the words of their rural entertainers, 



HISTOHY OP THE LANGUAGE. 



5 



and placed the result of their investigations in their admirable 
and naive collection of old German tales, or Haus-Harchen. 

Dialectic Differences of High- German andLoiv- German. — Let 
us now consider a few main points in which the two sister 
dialects differ from each other. It will easily be seen that 
these distinctions are but trifling. If we may venture a sup- 
position as to their origin, they arose from the fact that the 
Lowlanders, being a sea-faring or a sea-coast tribe, and probably 
also mixing more frequently with foreigners, parted with some of 
the harsher consonants and gutturals, as well as with the broader 
vowels of their inland compatriots. As regards the vowel- 
system, the difference of the inland Doric and the sea-side Ionic 
dialects in Greece will offer to the scholar an explanatory 
parallel, while for the interchange of consonants the Latin and 
Greek word-forms may be compared with advantage. 

1. The L. G. (i. e., Low-German) dialects substitute the 
a-sound as in mate for the H. G. (i. e., High- German) a-sound 
as in father. In other words the former modify and de-guttura- 
lize the broad vowels and diphthongs of the latter. Just as 
the Doric SS^o? became in Ionic, so the H. G. hat (=■ he 
has) becomes in L. G. hedd. Haus (= house) is in L. G. hus; 
auf is in L. G. up ; sein (= his) pronounced sa-yn, becomes in 
L. G. seen, pronounced nearly like sane in English. 

2. Most Low- German dialects, excepting Dutch, drop the 
gutturals of the High- German ; either they substitute a l\ a 
ck, or a y, or else they ignore them altogether. Thus, for 
suchen (== to seek) the L. G. is soken ; for auch (= also) the L. 
G. is auck ; for sich it is sick, but for mich (= me) it is mie. 

3. The Low-German dialects avoid sibilants (tz) and the 
letter s, when it is final, substituting almost invariably a t. 
Thus zwei (=two) is twee in L. G. ; grossen becomes groten, 
setzen is setten ; was becomes wat ; but ganzen becomes in 
L. G. gansen. 

4. The past participle of Low- German verbs does not prefix 
ge as in High -German. Thus, for hatte gesagt (= had said) the 

b 2 



6 



GERMAN LITEEATUEE. 



L. G. is hadde sagd ; and for hat angefangen (= has begun) 
the L. G. is hadde anfangen. 

5. But by far the most interesting phenomenon is the singu- 
lar interchange of soft, aspirate, and middle consonants, which, 
for reasons not yet accounted for, has taken place between 
High and Low- German words of the same root and meaning. 
It appears that, either during or after the migration, the Low- 
German dialects commenced to put a middle (B, G,and D, or 
Dh) in the place of the High-German soft consonant or tenuis 
(P, K, and T). On the other hand, they put a soft (P, K, and 
T) for the High- German aspirate (Ph, Ch, and Th). Lastly, 
they put an aspirate for the High- German middle (for B, G, 
and D). This peculiar law was first pointed out by Grimm, 
and is sometimes called Grimm's law. It is connected with 
similar phenomena in all the various subdivisions of the so- 
called Indo- Germanic languages. The tendency to mispro- 
nounce consonants in the sense indicated exists still in Germany, 
especially on the lower course of the Elbe, or in Saxony. The 
following table will present the nature of the law to the eye 
of the reader : — 

P, K, and T in High- German 

are B, G, and D, or Dh, in Low-German. 
Ph, Ch, and Th in High- German 

are P, K, and T in Low-German. 
B, G, and D in High- German 

are Y, H, and Th in Low-German. 
Instances of the above law are furnished by the following 
High-German words : — Tochter is in L. G. Dogter ; Mutter is 
Mother ; Dampfen (= to smoke) is Dampen ; Sieben is seven ; 
Tag (= day) is Dag ; Tief (= deep) is de-ip ; Dritte (= third) is 
thridde, and so on. 

In the preceding quotations the "Westphalian dialect has 
been taken as the representative of Low-German. It will be 
admitted, on comparing these two languages, that the diffe- 
rences which exist between them are as nothing when set 



EISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE. 



7 



against the general identity of both grammar and vocabulary. 
High- German and Low-German are but one language ; and the 
latter is only a very old and systematic mispronunciation, or a 
local malformation of the other, -which has better claims to 
antiquity. The distinction is not much greater than that of 
any other broad inland dialect compared with a sea-coast dia- 
lect of the same nation. 

History and Stages of the High- German Language. — Hoch- 
Deutsch, or the present national tongue of Germany, is cer- 
tainly one of the oldest as well as the most original languages 
in Europe. The Southern Germans, who spoke it in its earliest 
form, dwelt, before the migration east and south of the 
Saxon Low-Landers, in the large tract which lies between the 
Baltic and the Danube, as far east as the north of the Hsemus 
mountains, and perhaps as the Euxine. They bore the name 
of Suevi, Goths (Getas and Daci), Burgundians, Aiemanni, 
Alani, Yandals. Subsequently they wandered to the south of 
Germany, to both sides of the Danube. Some think that in an 
age very remote their ancestors, as well as those of most other 
Europeans, inhabited the mountains of Persia or Iran, from 
which, according to this supposition, all the Aryan or Indo- 
European nations at one time or another descended. This is 
the theory of Bopp in Berlin ; its most distinguished advocate 
in this country has been Professor Max Miiller. We should 
not have thought necessary to refer to it here, were there not, 
just on the threshold of German literature, an unmistakeable 
vestige of the connexion between Sanskrit and the oldest Ger- 
man. The surprising similarity of these two forms of speech 
is rendered probable by a newly discovered book, the oldest 
specimen of German which is in existence. This is the trans- 
lation of the Bible by Bishop TJlfilas, a Thracian or Visigothic 
prelate of the fourth century. His dialect, called the Moeso- 
Gothic, is the oldest form, of High-German, and, singularly 
enough, contains already traces of Low- German mispronuncia- 
tion. The Gothic of TJlfilas is remarkable for the lengthened 



b 



0ER3IAX LITERATE/EE. 



endings of his nouns, many of which end in ubni, a termination 
much, akin to endings of Sanskrit nouns. TJlfilas has a sepa- 
rate form for the Dual of substantives. He also forms some 
tenses of the Passive voice without any auxiliary verb, just as 
in Greek. His adverbs end in ha; the consonants are frequently 
compounded into forms such as Dd, Gin, Zn, Zv, Zg. For the 
preposition under he puts uf, which in later German meant the 
reverse of under. For that, the conjunction, he puts ei; and 
for through he has and. After the period of Ulfilas there comes 
a blank in the history of the German language, until in the 
ninth and three following centuries we find the two principal 
dialects, High and Low-German, fairly settled side by side, 
and struggling for the supremacy. The native soil of Hoch- 
Deutsch was Franeonia and Swabia, where Otfried and Xotker, 
two monks, first employed it as a written and literary lan- 
guage. This stage of the dialect is usually called Alt-Hoch- 
Deutsch. The next stage begins about 1150, or with the 
second Crusade, and ends with the Eeformation. This period is 
called Alittei-Hoch-Deutsch. It has been already related how 
the rise of the Salic or Franc onian, and afterwards that of the 
Hohenstaufen or Swabian dynasties, gave an undisputed 
superiority to the South, not only in politics but also in litera- 
ture. Thus began the heroic age of German poetry. Prose 
was not written at all ; but the study of Canon Law and Di- 
vinity began already to bring into the language a number of 
Latin and Greek words, more especially those which refer to 
ecclesiastic or political matters as well as to philosophic sub- 
jects. In the main, however, the changes of the High-German 
tongue during the middle ages are attributable rather to the 
incessant wear and tear which go on in every language and 
in every age, than to any extensive importation of foreign 
words. The want of regularity, and a corresponding tendency 
to decomposition, were moreover increased by the circum- 
stance that so many sub-dialects of High-German existed all 
over the countiy . There were not two districts of more than 



HISTOKY OF THE LANGUAGE. 



9 



fifty square miles, which spoke exactly alike. Of the ten 
circles into which the emperor Maximilian divided Germany, 
the three northern spoke either wholly, or in part, a species of 
Low-German. The Burgundian circle spoke Dutch ; the Lower 
Saxon and the "Westphalian spoke each their own Platt- 
Deutsch. But in the seven other circles as many subdivisions 
of High-German were employed. Thus we get Bavarian and 
Swabian Hoch-Deutsch in the south ; a Palatinate-, a Rhenish, 
and a Pranconian dialect in the middle ; and Austrian with 
Upper Saxon High-German in the east of Germany. These 
motley provincialisms might have gone on developing them- 
selves for ever ; they might have settled down into seven High 
and three Low dialects, just as it happened in one part, viz. 
in Holland ; in a word, there might have been a total end to 
the unity of speech in Deutschland, had not the new era of 
the Reformation put a stop to this state of things, and by its 
consequences raised one of the dialects just enumerated to such 
a decided pre-eminence over all the others, as to procure to it 
alone an exclusive recognition as the standard language of the 
country. 

Guttenberg and Luther, the inventor of the art of printing, 
and the champion of the Reformation, by their labours brought 
about this salutary change. They, and especially the latter, 
have finally decided the uniformity of speech for all the in- 
habitants of Germany. Guttenberg, by discovering type, pro- 
vided the mechanical means for fixing the spoken word in 
such a shape that it could reach the eyes and ears of mil- 
lions, and could spread in printed books far beyond the limits 
of a single province. Luther, by preaching the Reformed 
faith, supplied the stimulus for using the discovery of Gutten- 
berg. He first taught his countrymen to read and hear no 
other sort of German but his dialect. The great Reformer 
lived in Upper Saxony, and employed that species of High- 
German which was in use at Meissen and Eisenach, some 
twenty or thirty miles north of Dresden. Thus it came to 



10 



GEKMAN L1TEEATTTEE. 



pass that the Upper Saxon dialect triumphed over all the 
others. For such was his personal influence, such the popu- 
larity of his pamphlets and the celebrity of his sermons and 
translation of the Bible, that not only his own admirers but 
also his Catholic adversaries began to adopt Luther's diction, 
and to abide by his spelling, grammar, and word-forms. IS" or 
since his days has any material departure from his dialect 
been essayed, or even imagined possible. 

Thus, in the year 1534, when Luther published his com- 
plete translation of the Bible, the modern Hoch-Deutsch was 
fixed for all subsequent ages. The additions which since 
have been made to the German vocabulary did not increase 
the stock of household words, but only supplied appellatives 
for technical and artificial objects and occupations. The 
largest portion of these came from Prance. They were im- 
ported during the seventeenth century, when the influence of 
French manners and the French language reached an almost 
ignominious height at several German courts. Among others, 
all the verbs in -iren; the adjectives in <-abel, -6s, -ant; 
and the nouns in -age, -eur, -trice, and -erie, are importa- 
tions from the French. The terms of etiquette, cookery, 
dress, heraldry, dancing, and some in military art, are usually 
of this class. The Italian language furnished its quota of 
musical terms. EnglandUent to Germany her political and 
naval expressions ; the latter of these had originally been de- 
rived by the English from the Dutch, so that the naval dic- 
tionary of Germany presents the singular phenomenon of 
indigenous words with a foreign pronounciation. 

General Character of the Sigh- German Language. — Taking 
now the result of the process of formation we have just de- 
scribed, and comparing German with other European tongues, 
we cannot but perceive its peculiar advantages, as well as its 
peculiar defects. On the score of euphony, German must 
yield the' palm to other languages. It is not a melodious lan- 
guage, nor such as would please ac ear accustomed to Italian. 



HISTOEY OF THE LANGUAGE. 



11 



Its vowels indeed are long and musical enough, far broader at 
least than English vowels. But its consonantal system is 
rather harsh, and the frequency of hissing sibilants and com- 
pound or uncompounded gutturals tries both throat and tongue 
very considerably. But the vocabulary is at once more origi- 
nal and more copious than that of other languages. It includes, 
after all, but little that is not strictly Teutonic ; and the native 
stamp of German speech is as undeniable as the profuse wealth 
of verbal roots, and the numerous inflections which German 
commands. Perhaps no other language, except ancient Greek, 
ever possessed such facilities for inverting sentences, for deriv- 
ing new expressions from old ones, and for compounding words 
and clauses with others. But this superabundant pliancy, 
while it enables German authors to be forcible and subtle in 
their diction, also betrays them frequently into excess of colour- 
ing, and from this cause spring the majority of the defects of 
German style. The length of the compound words renders 
them unharmonious, if not unpronounceable. The expansion 
of the sentence, though intended to improve the argument, in 
reality confuses and hampers it. The inversion of the natural 
order of words, however expressive at times, often tends to ren- 
der the meaning obscure ; and the vast number of purely 
Teutonic words in the dictionary makes the language all the 
harder to acquire for a foreigner. Thus the very advantages 
which German boasts of become a source of weakness — not 
indeed of necessity, because there is no intrinsic impediment 
to prevent German from being as concise and readable as any 
other language — but as a matter of experience, and in conse- 
quence of the enormous architectural capacity of the languaga 
Schiller and Heine, to mention no more, have for instance 
avoided this danger of excessive intricacy, to which Hoch- 
Deutsch naturally tends, and have given ample proof that it 
can be written with simplicity and elegance. But there are 
also many other authors in Germany whose books cannot be 
literally translated into any forign language, so ramified is the 



12 



GERMAN LITER ATTIRE . 



formation of their sentences, and so artificial the composition 
of their words. It would be a serious mistake, if on that ac- 
count we were to form a low estimate of their merits as sources 
of information. However desirable perspicuity may be, the 
most transparent rivers are also the most shallow, and the most 
lucid writers are sometimes the most common-place and the 
first laid aside. 

"We shall fitly conclude this chapter on the history of the 
German language by subjoining a table, showing the stages 
through which it has run, and its affinity with other forms of 
speech of the same family in Europe. 

Indo-European languages : — I. Classical, Latin and Greek. 
II. Celtic. III. Lithuanian. IY. Slavonic. Y. Romaic, or 
mixtures of Latin and Teutonic : A. Italian ; E. Erench ; 
C. Spanish ; D . Portuguese ; E. Eouman, or Moldo-Walla- 
chian. VI. English, or a mixture of Anglo-Saxon, Norman- 
Erench, and Scandinavian. 

VII. Teutonic Languages: — 

A. Scandinavian; 
Old Norse ; 
Swedish ; 
Danish ; 
Norwegian. 

B. Low-German Dialects: — 
Anglo-Saxon; 

Dutch; 
Elemish; 
Erisian ; 

Westphalian Platt-Deutsch; 
Lower Saxon Platt-Deutsch. 

C. High-German: — 
Mceso-Gothic of Ulfilas (350) ; 
Eranconian and Swabian ; 
Alt-Hoch-Deutsch (800—1150) ; 
Mittel-Hoch-Deutsch (1150—1534) ; 
]STeu-Hoch-Deutsch (1534 to the present time). 



PEEIODS. 



CHAPTER II. 

ON THE PEEIODS AND GENEEAL CHAEACTEEISUCS OE GEEMAN 
LITEEATTJEE. 

Zenith of Literary Excellence, about 1800 a. d. — One of 
the things that will be observed by the student of German 
literature is the very recent date at which it nourished, as 
compared with that of other European nations. It is not 
more than eighty or a hundred years since Germans could 
first boast of any great poets or prose writers, while in Prance 
literature had already reached its climax at least two centuries 
before the present age, in England nearly three, and in Spain 
and Italy at a still earlier period. The High-German race 
took its place in the literary world after the Western or 
Eomaic nations in point of time; and the poetic impulse, 
which first originated in Greece, and thence came to Italy, 
had previously gone the whole round of Europe before it 
stirred up the Teutonic nation, and roused it likewise to song 
and inspired thought. The year 1800 a. d., maybe looked 
upon as the culminating point of literary excellence in Ger- 
many. The lateness of this date may seem surprising ; nor 
can we say what exactly may have been the cause which de- 
layed the dawn of poetic genius in that country. The most 
probable solution of the question seems to be, that religion had 
absorbed the whole attention of the Germans, and that the 
disastrous contests subsequent to the Eeformation blighted 
the spring-time of their intellectual fertility, just at the mo- 
ment when the national language had been fixed, and nothing 
but peace and prosperity seemed wanting to bring the bud 
to maturity. Be that as it may, there is a space of fully 
220 years between Luther and Lessing, who commences the 
classical era, so that the great national authors of Germany 
coincide only with the end of the last century ; unless, in- 

c 



14 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



deed, we should claim for the mediaeval bards the title of 
national poets, which their now discarded dialect and their 
solely antiquarian importance forbids us to attribute to them. 

By^ dividing the mediaeval literature into two sections, coex- 
tensive with the two earlier stages of the language, and by al- 
lotting to modern literature three sections, one rather longer 
than the others, we get five periods, as specified below. Each 
period commences and ends with some great event in the his- 
tory of Germany, except the classical era, which began amidst 
comparative peace, though it ended with the Revolution. 

First Period, the monastic age, or the Old High- German 
literature, from 360 a. d., to 1150, or from Ulfilas to the 
Crusades. During this age we shall have to record the 
labours of several pious monks, such as Otfried and ISTotker, 
whose translations from the Bible, along with some alliterative 
popular legends, form the oldest relics of German. 

Second Period, the chivalrous and artisan poetry, or the Min- 
nesanger and the Meistersanger, embracing the Middle High- 
German literature, from the Crusades to the Reformation, or 
from 1150 to 1534. This is a very brilliant period, yielding 
in the splendour of its literary performances to none among 
the nations of that time. A magnificent epic or heroic poetry 
was accompanied and succeeded by happy lyrical effusions. 

Third Period, the learned literature of the theologians^and 
scholars, or the Modern High- German literature in its pri- 
mary stage, from Luther to the dawn of the classical era, or 
from 1534 to 1760. During this period little was written, 
except hymns and rules of poetry. It was critical for Ger- 
many in politics, and also in literature. 

Fourth Period, the classical age of Modern High- German, 
beginning in 1760, and ending with the storms of the French 
Revolution, or the death of Schiller, in 1805. Besides Schiller 
and Gothe, who died in 1 832, but whose productiveness falls 
chiefly into this, not into the next period, many minor stars 
illumine the literary horizon ; the German drama reaches its 



PEEXODS. 



15 



perfection ; and Gb'ttingen, Jena, and Weimar become in suc- 
cession the rendezvous of the most eminent authors whom 
Germany has seen. 

Fifth and last Period, from 1805 up to the present time, the 
polemical age, in which we see the recent writers of Germany 
divided into two large camps, struggling the one for Progress 
in Church and State, the other for Conservatism. The Eo- 
mantic School sets the fashion at first, but soon Heine and the 
poets of Young Germany drive them off the field. At the 
same time, philosophy and history flourish, as well as novels, 
and every department of scientific writing. 

General Characteristics of German Authors. — Before we 
commence the history of special periods, or detail the works 
of separate authors, it seems advisable to take a prospective 
view of German literature in its totality. "Without some such 
general observations, without a clue to the prevailing tenden- 
cies of German writers, it is greatly to be feared the student 
will not see his way through the mass of detail which must be 
gone through. Besides, the history of a nation's literature 
gains in interest and utility in proportion as it enables us to 
recognise the peculiar genius of that nation, as revealed in its 
literary treasures. It is this alone which imparts value and 
significance to their analysis, which otherwise would be a dead 
letter, or a dry list of names. It is purposed, therefore, briefly 
to point out the most striking characteristics of German writers; 
and, as contrast heightens the vividness of description, it has 
been thought advisable to compare their manner and taste with 
those of French and English authors. 

Contrast with French Authors. — In the literature of France 
the conventional sentiment, or the regard for social propriety, 
acts as the criterion of good taste, and forms also the most re - 
markable merit and demerit of poetic and prose compositions. 
This truth has often been averred by French writers,* and is 

* Thus Sainte Beuve says in his "Critiques et Portraits," § 2 — "La pre- 
ference de la litterature francaise consiste dans 1' esprit de conversation et 



16 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



in fact the direct consequence of the peculiarly sociable and 
lively character of the French as a nation. Men always write 
as they think, and we must expect to discover visible marks 
of national character in the literature of any people. Thus, 
as the French possess great talent for conversation, a due ap- 
preciation of good manners, much anxiety to please and shine, 
and withal more brilliancy than substance, more versatility 
than gravity, so also the tenor and style of French composi- 
tions are similarly affected. The language is easy and decla- 
matory, as the verse is always light and flowing. There is 
never any obscurity in the style, but occasionally we meet 
some rhetoric and surprising, or effective turns, which charm 
rather than convince. The kind of composition most in use 
is another, and a very decisive, test of the national genius. 
Of all the branches of poetry which have been cultivated in 
France none has found more distinguished votaries than comedy, 
or the representation of manners. Who does not remember 
Tartuff e and Harpagon, Monsieur Jourdain and Alceste ? Their 
names and characters will perhaps outlive all the literary per- 
formances of the countrymen of Moliere. In the light, the 
gay, the frivolous, in the portraiture of the external aspects of 
society, no literature has been either so prolific or so felicitous. 
"W hile the novels of Dumas, or Paul de Kock, rill the shelves 
of lending libraries, the vaudevilles of Scribe find their way, 
in one shape or another, into all the theatres of the world. 
The case is different with other branches of poetry. Thus, 
for instance, the tragedies of French authors have not been 
equally well received by non-Gallic audiences. Nor is this 
astonishing, because the tragic vein requires far other qualifi- 
cations than the comic. The Eodrigues, Orestes, and Tancredes 
of a Corneille, Racine, and Yoltaire, declaimed too much 

de societe, Y entente du monde et des homines, 1' intelligence vive et 
deliee des convenances et des ridicules, l'ingenieuse delicatessedes senti- 
ments, la grace, le piquant, la politesse achevee du langage." Similarly 
M me de Stael in " De l'Allemagne," Partie L, § xi. 



CKENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



17 



like French galans ; they were always vindicating their 
honour or complimenting their belle. Besides the disregard of 
the conditions of historic truth, there was also a painful 
want of tragical sublimity — a want so serious, that no other 
quality can redeem it. The same absence of deep poetic 
feeling has usually characterized the lyrical compositions 
of France. Yoltaire has written some elegant light poetry : 
Beranger has produced some convivial songs ; Lamartine 
and Victor Hugo have versified, the one many pious, the 
other many political meditations in elevated language ; still 
we miss in their verses the genuine flame of poetic inspi- 
ration, the note of thrilling joy, and the cry of piercing 
sorrow. "We read their volumes with pleasure; but we 
lay them aside unmoved — regretting, perhaps, that the " sen- 
timents distingues," which figure so often in letters or in 
conversation, should be so little realized in the poetry of 
France. Contrasted, therefore, with such a literature as this, 
the poets and prose writers of Germany may seem inferior in 
elegance, in wit, in ease, in comic talent, in shrewd perception 
of social foibles, and in their sense of conventional propriety ; 
above all, they may be less accessible to a foreign student than 
the writers of France ; and yet their merits will sutler nothing 
by the comparison. There are qualities of prose more vital 
than facility and legibleness — namely, soundness of informa- 
tion and depth of research, just as there are beauties of poetry 
more delightful than varnish and wit — namely, imagination, 
pathos, and sublimity. It is in these latter qualities rather 
than in the former that the authors of Germany will be found 
to excel. 

Contrast with English Writers. — The English mind is cast 
in a sterner mould than the French, and the contrast which it 
affords to the genius of Germany differs entirely from that 
which exists between the Germans and their neighbours be- 
yond the Ehine. Both literatures, English and German, are 
rather of a sober and serious cast. There is in both the same 

c 2 



18 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



absence of the light and frivolous, the same earnest looking 
into the future as well as into the past. Starting as both nations 
did with considerable affinities in language and nationality, 
having since then added a like religious movement, it was but 
natural that in their literature also they should sometimes give 
utterance to similar sentiments, "With all that, the contrast 
of English and German authors is such as cannot be overlooked. 
To begin with the former, the predominating feature of British 
literature is its much more practical and moralizing tendency. 
This character is generally acknowledged by the historians 
who have recorded its past. It moreover corresponds with the 
qualities usually attributed to Englishmen by other Euro- 
peans — -their reputed reserve, their prudence in social inter- 
course, their excellent business-habits, their strong feeling of 
personal independence. Above all, it is engrafted on the his- 
tory, as well as on the religious and political condition, of the 
British nation. "Le genie de TAngleterre," says Lamartine, 
" est habile et superbe." The question is, what light this 
may throw on the language and literature of England. A 
variety of observations soon present themselves to bear out the 
analogy. In the first place, English style is remarkable for its 
sober and dispassionate diction, and thus fully corresponds with 
the reserve and sang-froid attributed to the national charac- 
ter. Much declamation will not suit it. To insert frequent 
interjections, or to employ a string of interrogations ; to in- 
dulge in emphatic marks of either dislike or admiration ; to 
dot whole lines with unutterable sentiment, would in English 
appear supremely ridiculous ; and this is the reason why many 
a page of Erench cannot be literally translated so as to make 
good English. On the other hand, the language equally re- 
jects the intricacies of the German style, the yard-long sen- 
tences, the inverted constructions, the artificial composition of 
words, and the deep subtlety of the argument. JSText, we can 
trace in the pages of English philosophers the effect of the 
same practical tendency which so strongly characterizes the 



GENEEAL cbaeacteeistics. 



19 



nation, No class of British authors illustrates this spirit more 
clearly than philosophers, whose favourite doctrines have 
usually been those of Utilitarianism, and a recommendation of 
common sense and experience. In advocating the useful and 
well-tested, in preference to the idealism of the Greek and 
German Schools, they expressed the most deep-rooted senti- 
ment of the national mind. Eut not only in British philosophy, 
but also in English poetry, vestiges abound which point in a 
similar direction. The drama in England arose out of the so- 
called " moral" plays, and the sublime art of Shakspeare 
retains many traces of this origin in its plan and construction. 
Indeed, the moral is the prevailing sentiment of English poetry. 
It inspires the verses of Milton, it forms the theme of Pope, it 
animates the lines of Goldsmith, and has the largest share in 
the prose of Dr. Johnson. How man might improve his con- 
dition, and what result his actions will have, this seems to 
have been, on the whole, the main topic of English poets and 
prose writers ; but not abstract theories of right and wrong, 
nor the mystery itself of man's earthly existence, the problem 
which has so often engrossed the attention of German poets and 
thinkers. 

Theorizing Tendency of German Prose ; Lyrical Tendency of 
German Poetry. — After the preceding digression, we shall all 
the better be able to delineate the character of German litera- 
ture. It may be described as eminently theorizing and lyri- 
cal, wherein it stands contrasted with the conventional or 
social tendency of the Erench, and the practical or moralizing 
spirit of English compositions. The characteristic feature of 
German authors, and perhaps in general of Germans, is their 
more contemplative disposition, as compared to most of their 
neighbours. Political circumstances, no doubt, co-operated 
with natural disposition to produce in them such a turn of 
mind. The division of the soil into a number of small states, 
the prevalence of despotic rule, and the want of opportunities 
for extensive commerce or distant navigation, all these causes 



20 



GEEMAff LIIEEATUEE. 



have had the effect of rendering society in Germany more stag- 
nant than elsewhere, and of diverting attention from politics 
and public questions. Beyond the practice of arms, but few 
active occupations could become habitual, and hence greater 
attention was bestowed on science and learning. The more 
the educated found themselves excluded from participation in 
state affairs, and lacked a suitable sphere for the exertion of 
their talents, the more they devoted themselves to the pursuit 
of abstract science. Thus the problems of Metaphysics and 
Divinity, of History and Language, in a minor degree also 
those of physical science, jurisprudence, and medicine, became 
the absorbing questions of the day ; and the literati followed, 
with the rest of the public, in the wake of the scholars and 
metaphysicians. However, the characteristics of a literature 
can only in part be explained from political or social causes ; 
the main cause must be sought in the bent of the popular 
mind. On this question we cannot do better than quote 
again the French authority already adduced : — " Le genie de 
I'Allemagne," says Lamartine, " est profond et austere." The 
German character is earnest, meditative, inclined to be stern ; 
it is less desirous to please, and less fond of display than the 
Erench. Possessing neither the business tact nor the decision 
of many of his neighbours, the German can yet show a con- 
siderable amount of devotion and tenacity both of purpose 
and action, especially when his enthusiasm is once roused in 
behalf of a cause which he has made his own. He is natu- 
rally unostentatious, and pays but little regard to external 
indications of what passes within him. The truth of this ob- 
servation cannot be better illustrated than by instancing the 
singularly undemonstrative form of worship which is in use 
in many parts of the country. The Lutherans have discarded 
not only the incense vessels, the crucifixes, the saints' images, 
and other pageantry of their Catholic ancestors, but abstain 
even from litanies, responses, kneeling, and other outward 
signs of prayer. With them religion addresses the mind ex- 



GEKERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 21 

clusively, and not the senses ; and as they are at the same time 
unwilling to abide by precedents, unless they recommend 
themselves to their reason, the Protestants of Germany have 
stripped their churches and worship of all ornament and 
formal embellishment. Much of the same contempt for forms 
and externals can also be traced in the literature of Germany". 
On the whole, the matter of composition, is superior to its 
form. Teutonic authors evince more originality and perseve- 
rance in the pursuit of truth, than either attention to style 
or respect for authority in its enunciation. They usually 
possess much endurance in collecting laboriously a number of 
facts ; they also have the talent and penetration requisite for 
generalizing these facts, and veracity enough to communicate 
them accurately; but their style sometimes appears dry and 
theorizing, to which the natural tendency of the language 
contributes its share. This theorizing tendency of German 
literature is especially proved by the great number of philo- 
sophical productions published in Germany. But a sort of 
speculative vein runs through the majority of German prose 
compositions. The writings of a Lessing, a Schlegel, a Kie- 
buhr, or a Pufendorf abound in criticism and analysis ; and 
even in Schiller's and Gothe's works we could point out pas- 
sages which exhibit the same tendency. 

The principal characteristic of German poetry fully cor- 
responds with the predominant feature of Teutonic prose. A 
contemplative disposition is always manifested in poetry by a 
predilection for lyrics. There is an evident connexion between 
the lyrical and the speculative sentiment ; the one and the 
other presuppose a calm, a pensive, a serious tone; both dwell 
in the domain of reflection; both are removed from action; 
both express the world within us, rather than that without. 
Tor this reason the lyrical element is the largest in the poetry 
of Germany, just as the comic vein distinguishes that of Prance, 
and as the didactic predominates in that of England. The 
reader will not forget, at the same time, that in a country 



22 



GERMAN LITERATURE . 



where a taste for music is so universally diffused as in Ger- 
many, there would be an additional inducement to lyrical 
verse composition. The melody needs its text, and song can- 
not warble without articulate notes. Most rich and varied, 
therefore, is the literature of Lieder in Germany. The larger 
portion of both Minne- and Meister-Gesang, the whole sacred 
poetry of pre -Lutheran and post- Lutheran times, the best 
effusions of KLopstock, Schiller, Go the, and Heine, belong to 
this class of compositions. The lyrical tendency can even be 
traced in departments where it is less legitimate, as we shall 
have sometimes to point out in speaking of the German epos 
and drama. The Messiah of IGopstock, and the tragedies of 
Go the, often labour under this defect. 



FIRST PEEIOD THE MONASTIC AGE. 



23 



CHAPTEE III. 

FIRST PERIOD— THE MONASTIC AGE. 350-1150. 

Character of this Period.— The record of trie literary remains 
of Germany during the Middle Ages opens with the Monastic 
age — an epoch which embraces no less than eight centuries, 
from the great migration to the Crusades. It is a period full 
of mystery and darkness, illuminated but here and there by a 
ray of light. Its scanty relics, however important for ethno- 
graphical and historic purposes, possess but little interest from 
a literary point of view. They bear witness to the great moral 
struggle which convulsed Germany in that space of time, the 
struggle between Heathenism and Christianity. The triumph 
of the cross over Thor and Wodan was tardy and slow, marked 
by a reluctant surrender of their national traditions on the 
part of the natives, as well as by martyrdoms on the part of 
those who converted them. The Church had to encounter 
far greater obstacles in Germany than she met with in England, 
Trance, Italy, or Spain ; for here the spread of the Gospel was 
preceded by a long acquaintance with the Eoman race and the 
Latin language, which served as the vehicle of communication 
to the early missionaries. No Eoman had ever trodden the 
virgin soil of the interior of Germany ; and the Apostles of the 
Gospel had to cope with a new race of stubborn Pagans, whose 
tongues they did not know, and whose superstitions they did 
not understand. The most successful attempts at conversion 
proceeded from those preachers who owned some kind of kins- 
manship with the tribes among whom they laboured. Thus 
already in 350, under Valentinian, an ecclesiastic of Cappa- 
docian descent, but who had lived among the Visigoths in 
Moesia, Eishop TJlfllas, gained over large numbers of his new 
countrymen to the Christian faith. Eut the tide of the mi- 
gration swept away the fruit of his labours, and the disper- 



24 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



sion of his tribe over Italy and Spain prevented the seed from 
taking root among other Germans. It was not until four cen - 
turies later, when the waves of the great "Wandering had ceased 
to flow, and when several Teutonic tribes had become 
thoroughly Latinized abroad, that anew and successful resump- 
tion of the work of Ulfilas could take place. The conversion 
of the Germans was chiefly due to the zeal of the Anglo-Saxons 
and Irish, and to the arms of CharlemagDe and his Pranks. It 
was so destined that the mother- country should receive back 
Christianity as a return for her sons whom she had sent to 
people the land of her neighbours. Supported by their courage 
alone, a number of pious monks from Ireland and England 
came across the German Ocean in the seventh and eighth cen- 
turies. They preached among the Frisians, penetrated into 
the forests of tbe Saxons, and, nothing daunted by the death 
of many of their brethren, succeeded in erecting churches on the 
banks of the Rhine, "Weser and Elbe. Such men were St. 
Gall, who founded the monastery of Sanct Gallon, in Switzer- 
land ; St. Kero, St. Columban, St. Kilian, all four Irishmen ; 
and the great Apostle of Germany, St. Boniface or Winfried, 
an Englishman, whose name is almost identified with the Chris - 
tianization of the ancient Germans. In 744 a. d. the abbey 
of Eulda was founded on the bank of the River Eulda, an arm 
of the Weser. Sturm, a friend and disciple of Winfried, was 
the first abbot who presided over it. \ third missionary sta- 
tion was that of Corvey, in the same region of Germany. 

As the early delegates of the Church were perfect strangers 
to the land of their adoption, they made it their first business 
to acquire a certain acquaintance with the language of the 
natives, though their horror of idolatry prevented them from 
showing any very liberal interest in popular traditions. To 
facilitate their intercourse with the Germans, they drew up 
some Latin-German vocabularies, or rather lists of Teutonic 
words, oddly spelt, and but ill understood, with some equally 
barbarous equivalents in monastic Latin opposite. Two such 



F HEIST PERIOD THE MONASTIC AGE. 



25 



lists have come down to us. The one is said to have been 
made by St. Gall, the other by St. Kero ; both are in a frag- 
mentary state. These documents are very amusing, as exem- 
plifying the linguistic exercises in which these primitive 
monks were engaged. If either they or the Church who sent 
them had been guided by enlarged principles of ecclesiastical 
policy, they might have preserved the songs or ballads of the 
old Germans ; or, if their dread of Heathenism did not allow 
this, they might at least have translated the Eible into Ger- 
man, in imitation of the spirited undertaking ofUlnlas; but 
the narrowness of their views did not allow such an enterprise. 
We find among the German clergymen of the eleventh and 
twelfth centuries reiterated attempts to execute for the good of 
their flocks some versions of the Creeds, the Homilies, the 
Eenedictine Eules, and parts of the sacred volume ; but the 
voice of the Eoman Church distinctly interdicted the use of 
the native idiom for purposes of public worship, and any at- 
tempt at replacing the authorized Latin version of the Eible 
by a German translation would have been visited with her 
severe censure. Hence the few versions already alluded to 
had no other value than that of literary experiments, or works 
of private devotion ; still less attention was bestowed by the 
monks on the native poetry of their converts. Thus the Church 
took with one hand what she gave with the other. She taught 
writing and reading, but she refused to emancipate the national 
mind. She patronized literature and learning, but she pro- 
scribed all literature which, was not Latin. Under such cir- 
cumstances we may fairly question the obligations under which 
Germany rests to the early monks for her literary cultivation. 
The monastic era of literature means, indeed, its first awaken- 
ing as well as its first stammer, but it means also its unworthy 
vassalage to Latin, its mutilation by its monkish foster-fathers, 
and its obscuration by the hands of the servants of the Church. 

UJfilas, 350. — This great preacher of the Gospel was born 
in 318. His parents were Cappadocians ; so that by descent 

D 



26 



GEKMAN LITEEATUEE. 



he cannot be claimed as a German. He had embraced the 
Arian doctrines ; and as he had lived among the Visigoths from 
a very early age, he converted a great many of them to Chris- 
tianity, and was dignified by other Greek prelates with the 
title of Bishop of the Visigoths. He translated the Bible into 
the Mceso -Gothic dialect; but omitted the books of Kings, be- 
cause he feared (so it is said) to rouse the martial spirit of his 
tribe by a perusal of the wars of the early Jewish rulers. 
When, in 355, his friends and converts were closely pressed by 
the Ostrogoths, Ulfilas solicited and obtained for himself and 
them a refuge on the soil of the Eoman Empire. Twice he at- 
tended general synods at Constantinople, where he died at last 
in 388. He did not live to see either his doctrines repudiated, 
or his tribe dispersed. The best manuscript of his Bible is 
now in TJpsal in Sweden, whither it was carried from Prague 
after the siege of 1648. The following is the text of the 
Lord's Prayer in the Visigothic High-German : — " Atta unsar, 
thu in Himinam, weihnai Nanio thein. Quimai Thindinas 
us theins. "Wairthai AVilja theins, swe in Himinah, ja ana 
Airthai. Haif unsarana thana sinteiman gif uns himadaga. 
Ja afiet uns thatei Skulans sijaima, swa swe ja weis afletam 
Skulam unsaraim. Ja ni briggais uns Praistubnjai, ak lausei 
uns of thama Ubilin. Unte theina ist Thiudanjardi, jah 
Maths, ja Wulthus, in Aiwins." 

After Ulfilas we have to make a leap of several centuries, 
in order to arrive at the next data in the literary history of 
the Germans. 

Influence of Charlemagne — Of all the tribes who changed 
their abodes during the migration, the Pranks were the first 
who attained a fixed state of society. They had left the banks 
of the Ehine and Maine about 420, accompanied by numbers 
of Burgundians and Visigoths, and founded in Prance an em- 
pire under the sway of the Merovingian, and subsequently the 
Carlovingian kings. It is surprising how little they inter- 
mixed with the population whom they had conquered. Por 



FIEST PEHIOD THE MONASTIC AGE. 



27 



several centuries they lived among them, rather encamped 
than peacefully settled. They continued to speak the German 
language, in addition to the Gallo-Roman patois then used in 
France. The names and the descent of their sovereigns, from 
Pharamond to Childeric, and even to a later period, are 
thoroughly German, so were their laws and manners; nor 
can we speak of a specific country and a definite language of 
France until after the treaty of Yerdun in 843, since up to 
that time the Franks looked upon themselves as being still 
one with those Franconian compatriots whom they had left 
behind, but from whom as yet no political boundary separated 
them. German Franconia, the cradle of the conquering race, 
formed part of Austrasia, or the eastern portion of the empire. 
Since the reign of Clovis but few Frankish sovereigns bestowed 
any attention on other Teutonic tribes besides their own sub- 
jects. Charlemagne was the first who adopted a different line 
of policy, and acted as a conqueror towards other Germanic 
races. To his determined exertions the gradual extinction of 
Paganism among the Saxons is principally due ; but, though 
he treated these tribes as Heathens and barbarians, the great 
emperor never forgot his connexion with them, but always re- 
membered the Teutonic origin of his race. He resided at 
Aachen, and spoke the German language as his " patrius 
sermo," according to the express testimony of his biographer, 
Einhard, or Eginhard. He himself drew up some grammatical 
principles of German, and used to recite the old ballads, in 
which the exploits of Teuton kings and heroes were celebrated. 
He charged the clergy to translate their Latin homilies into 
German as well as Gallo-Roman, since both these dialects were 
the recognised idioms of his subjects. Finally, he fixed by 
law the German and Gallic equivalents for the winds and 
months, when their denominations had become confused in 
the ideas of his people. On Charlemagne's death the necessity 
of dividing the two nationalities became more and more appa- 
rent, and this led to the formation of the separate empires of 



28 



GERMAN LITERATURE . 



Prance, Germany, and Italy ; but even after the treaty of 
Yerdun in 843, we find many proofs that the use of the High- 
German dialect still continued in the north and east of France. 
About 900, for instance, a Prankish monk, whose probable 
name was Hucland, living in St. Amand, in Flanders, com- 
posed a High-German ode, or song, dedicated to Louis III., 
and celebrating the victory which that French king had gained 
over the Normans in 881. This song is called "Has Ludwigs- 
lied;" it was edited lately by Hoffmann von Fallersleben, and 
possesses a peculiar interest, as showing that the use of the 
Teutonic dialect survived for fully five centuries after the 
Prankish conquest among the inhabitants of the north-east of 
France. 

Alliterative Popular Ballads. — The Irish, English, or French 
monks, who converted the ancient Germans, often heard them 
sing certain ballads, which embodied at once the history and 
the poetry of their own forefathers, and probably the same 
poems which Charlemagne is said to have recited These 
songs glorified the grand deeds of native chieftains,- — combats 
with dragons, expeditions to distant lands, rescues of captive 
damsels, and cruel acts of retaliation for past injury. The 
names of the chief heroes were Siegfried of the Netherlands, 
Dietrich of Bern or Yerona, with his armour-bearer Hilde- 
brand, and Giinther of Burgundy. Another heroine was Guth- 
run, the Frisian maiden ; and in all probability the tricks of 
Reynard the Fox formed also part of their poetic themes. As 
the majority of these ancestral legends breathed a thoroughly 
Pagan spirit, and were intimately bound up with the mytho- 
logy of the native religion, it was plainly the interest, if not 
the duty, of the ecclesiastics to discourage and ignore this 
kind of composition. Thus the popular poetry of the ancient 
Germans was doomed to oblivion by their Christian civilizers. 
Had the natives possessed the art of writing, they might, not- 
withstanding, have saved their poetry from destruction. But, 
as all literary culture, which required the aid of pen and ink, 



EIKST PEKIOD THE MONASTIC AGE. 



29 



was strictly limited to the monasteries, but one or two frag- 
ments of the old ballad-poetry could escape from the universal 
shipwreck ; and it remained for an age such as the following, 
when all fear of the return of Paganism had ceased, to retrieve 
the losses of the monastic era, and to rediscover and poeticize 
the almost forgotten traditions, which were then embodied 
in the Mbelungen-Lied, and other epics of the thirteenth 
century. 

The form of the old ballad-poetry is no less remarkable than 
its subject. It employed a verse distinct from the JSTibelun- 
gen-stanza, and is, in fact, unlike any other known verse of 
any literature. Its melody was regulated by syllabic empha- 
sis, not by quantity, as in Latin and Greek poetry. There 
were always three accented or emphasized syllables in each of 
the two hemistichs of a line, and there were usually as many 
unaccented syllables inserted between or after them, so that 
on the whole the trochaic rhythm prevailed. But what is 
far more peculiar is the total absence of rhyme. Instead of 
it, Alliteration was employed, i. e. the repetition of the same 
consonant or vowel in the beginning of several words of the same 
line.^ 

All the oldest poetry of the Teutonic nations of Europe, in- 
cluding English, is alliterative. This had probably its origin 
in the manner in which these ballads were recited by the 
ancient Germans. They used to sit round a table or in a 
circle, with their shields, lances, and swords in their hands. 
Their minstrel stood in the middle, and his hearers accom- 
panied his recitation by the martial sound of their weapons. 
Each time that the alliterated syllable fell from his lips, the 
whole band would dash their lances on their shields, or strike 

* A specimen is given lower down, page 31. Alliteration is still found 
in a large number of old proverbs, or proverbial locutions, of nearly all 
Teutonic languages. In German, for instance, the following cases occur: — 
"Land und Leute; ; ' " Mann und Maus " Hautund Haar;" "mitSchimpf 
und Schande "Wohl und Wehe ;" "iiber Stock und Stein/' and others. 

D 2 



30 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



their armour with their swords, and thus the return of the 
identical letter served them as an indication of the right mo- 
ment to sound the chorus-note. The scene must have been 
grand and imposing, and its rude but manly simplicity forms 
a striking contrast with the effeminate rhyme -jingling of 
modern poetry. 

Beowulf, 750. — The oldest alliterative legend that is known 
is Anglo-Saxon, and was composed in the North of Germany, 
about 750. It relates an old Norse saga of Beowulf, a Danish 
prince, who encountered a fiendish cannibal, and slew him by 
the aid of enchanted weapons. But the prince finds at length 
his death after another successful combat with a sea-monster, 
which he also destroyed. The tale is not only more super- 
natural, but also longer, than might be desired, containing 
upwards of six thousand lines. 

Hildebrandslied, 800. — More probable, as well as more brief, 
is the incident related in the Hildebrands-song, the oldest 
High- German poem extant, though it is of later origin 
than the Low- German Beowulf. The story of this famous 
ballad transfers us at once into the cycle of legends which 
form the substance of the Nibelungen-lay. The aged Hilde- 
brand, who had accompanied his master, Dietrich of Verona, 
on his journey to Hungary, returns home, after the fight with 
the Mbelungen heroes, and their bloody destruction in the 
camp of Attila. While proceeding on his way with his Gothic 
followers, he is met by a hostile band, and among the latter is 
Hadubrand, his own son, whom he had left behind when still an 
infant. The two parties challenge each other, and their chiefs 
advance, each in front of his army, as the champions of their 
friends. They ask and tell each other's names before en- 
gaging, and soon Hildebrand becomes aware that he has his 
own child for his antagonist. He conjures him, by Irmingott, 
to desist from the fight, and informs him that he is his parent. 
But the youth only laughs at this assertion, and attributes it 
to a ruse of battle. " My father Hildebrand, » quoth he, " has 



FIRST PERIOD THE MONASTIC AGE. 



31 



been dead this many a day ; the sailors told me so, who came 
over the "Wendel-sea (the Adriatic, or Mediterranean). You are 
a cunning Hun — you think to cheat me." Hildebrand still he- 
wails his strange lot, which, after sixty years of danger and 
many a narrow escape, dooms him either to die by the hands of 
his son, or else to become his slayer. But all parleying is 
fruitless, and the fatal combat commences. Ere long their 
lances are broken, their shields are dashed to pieces, and 
already their swords are drawn to decide the fight. But here 
the ballad suddenly breaks off. The two Fulda monks, who 
culled its lines from the mouths of the natives, left their manu- 
script unfinished, or else part of it was lost. But from other 
sources we know how the ballad concluded. The father suc- 
ceeded, after a desperate struggle, in disarming his son, and by 
sparing his life convinced him of his paternity. They then 
return together to their common hearth in Lombardy. 

The lay of Hildebrand contains 66 alliterative lines. Its 
language is Old High- German ; but there are in this, as in 
other specimens of that dialect, a number of Low-Germanisms, 
such as seggen for sagen, det for das, enti for und, and so on. 
The following are the four beginning lines — the Alliteration is 
marked by italics : — 

" Ik ge/^orta det seggen, dat sih ur^ettun senon muo-tin 
. iZiltibrant enti iZadubrant, untar IZeriun tuem. 
Smm anti Fatar ango iro Saxo rihtun 
6rarntun se ihro 6rudhainum, #urtun sih iro Suert ana." 

[I heard it said that once each other had met 
Hildebrand and Hadubrand, between two armies ; 
Son and father their armours did adjust ; 
They prepared their battle- tunics, girded their swords on.] 

Religious Poetry of the Monastic Age. — The other relics of 
the monastic era are all religious poems, dating from the end 
of the eighth century, when Christianity had fairly dawned 
on Germany, up to the twelfth and thirteenth. In addition 



82 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



to translations of the Creeds, the Church hymns, and the Bene- 
dictine vows, there occur some independent pious effusions, 
either simple prayers or versions of Scripture-history, and such 
Scripture-doctrines as inspired the new converts with particu- 
lar awe. 

One of the earliest is the Wessolrun Prayer, a short allitera- 
tive poem, in use among the monks of the cloister of Wesso- 
brun, in Bavaria, which had been founded in 7 50, and is still 
in existence. It celebrates the power of the Creator, and prays 
for His mercy and assistance. 

Muspilli, 830. — The older religious poetry throughout em- 
ployed the same metre and poetic forms as the popular bal- 
lads. This may also be observed of Muspilli, a poem which 
sets forth the horrors of Doomsday. The name Muspilli meant 
fire, and was borrowed from Heathen mythology, although 
here it was used to denote the judgment day of the Christian 
religion. According to the anticipations of its author, the 
Antichrist shall come on the last day, and fight with Elias. 
When the first drop of the innocent prophet's blood has 
trickled on the earth, then in that moment, the firmament 
shall be torn asunder, the general conflagration shall com- 
mence, and the nations of the earth, both dead and living, 
shall be called to their reckoning. 

Heliand, 840. — But the greatest circulation was acquired 
by a third poem, called " Heliand " or the Saviour. It is writ- 
ten in Low-German, and was the work of a "Westphalian rustic. 
According to some it was Louis le Debonnaire, according to 
another report it was a nocturnal vision, which encouraged him 
to undertake the lofty task of describing the life and death of 
the Saviour. Whatever may have induced him to forestal 
Milton, he was no mean competitor for the laurels of the British 
bard. His verse displays the most admirable simplicity of dic- 
tion, as well as a judicious fidelity to the text of Scripture. 
It is only to be regretted that of his poem but fragments should 
have come down to us ; the rest, along with the name of the 



FIRST PERIOD THE MONASTIC AGE. 



33 



poet, is lost, although there is an imitation of his poem, which 
is not equal in merit to the extant specimens of the "Heliand." 

Learned Monks. — The three religions poems hitherto enu- 
merated show by their alliterative form, as well as by their 
contents, that their authors were still novices in the Christian 
faith, and recollected the mythology and poetry of their fore- 
fathers, whose poetic metre they preserved in their verses. 
But about 870 the alliterative form of writing was abandoned, 
and rhyme, the modern form of poetry, put in its place by a 
Pranconian monk of the name of Otfried. After the genera- 
tion of foreign missionaries, — such as St. Gall, St. Kero, St. 
Kilian, and Winfried, — there had sprung up a number of native 
ecclesiastics, some of whom were distinguished for their learn- 
ing, and a few also for their poetry. To this class belonged 
Ehabanus Maurus, the Archbishop of Mayence, who composed 
some learned glossaries ; and especially the Eranconian Otfried. 
This monk paraphrased in High-German the " Heliand" of the 
Saxon rustic, and dedicated it, under the title of "Krist," or 
" Evangelien-Harmonie," to the first King of Germany pro- 
per, Ludwig the German. Otfried lived in the abbey of St. 
Gallen, which had been founded by an Irishman, St. Gall. In 
the latter part of his life he retired to a monastery in Alsatia. 
His metre is very careful, though his poetry is mediocre. He 
interspersed the simple Scripture narrative with too many ho- 
milies and reflections of his own, which mar the effect. His 
motive for abandoning alliteration was either a desire to imi- 
tate the Latin homilies, which used to employ rhyme, or else 
an idea that alliteration was a Heathen form of poetry, because 
it was found in all the native ballads. 

About one hundred years after Otfried another monk, of the 
name of Notker, and surnamed Labeo and Teutonicus, medi- 
tated and composed within the precincts of St. Gallen. He 
executed a version of the Psalms in the Swabian High- German 
dialect. This translation, together with Otfried' s "Krist," are 
the true types of the present language of Germany in its ear- 



34 GERMAN LITERATURE . 

liest stage; for the Moeso- Gothic, the Low- German, and other 
idioms employed in the earlier ages, are only so many kindred 
dialects ; whereas the Southern German of Notker, and the 
. Franconian of Otfried, are the direct antecedents and parents 
of the modern Hoch-Deutsch. The forms of JNotker show an 
astonishing similarity to the diction of the present day. The 
following is the first verse of his " Psalms : " — 

" Der Man ist salig, der in dero Argon Eat ne geging, noh 
an dero Siindigon Unege ne stuont, noh an demo Suht-Stuole 
ne saz." 

In this passage we need but alter the spelling a little, drop 
the reduplication in the past of gehen, put for the stool of the 
mocking or Sucht-Stuhl, as De Wette has it: "In dem Kreise 
der Spotter/' and we have German as it is now spoken. 

Some time after Notker, a monk of Eulda, in Franconia, 
called Williram, translated the Song of Solomon (in German 
"Das hohe Lied"). He became afterwards an abbot in a 
Bavarian monastery, where he died in peace in 1085. A re- 
cluse of the name of Ava composed, about 1120, a poetical 
account of the life and work of the Saviour and likewise in- 
dulged her imagination on the subject of Doomsday and the 
Antichrist, two topics which seem to have possessed peculiar 
charms for the fancy of the earlier converts. These composi- 
tions conclude the Old High-German period, or the monastic 
era; and we now proceed to the epoch of the Crusades, in 
which the literature of Germany entered on a new and bril- 
liant phase. 



SECOND PERIOD ERA OE THE MENKES ANGER. ETC. 



35 



CHAPTEE IV. 

SECOND PERIOD. — ERA OF THE MINNESANGER (1150-1300) AND MEISTER- 
S ANGER (1300-1534). 

Character of the Period. — The second period of German lite- 
rature embraces all the poetry and prose, composed in the 
Middle High- German dialect, a form of the language simply 
more advanced than the Old. This period differs, however, 
from the preceding in something more than the diction. There 
is also a marked alteration in spirit and tone. Down to the 
time of the Crusades, monasticism had held possession of lite- 
rature, and had manifested itself in devotional, occasionally 
also in erudite compositions. Monkish ideas and clerical ob- 
jects had so thoroughly monopolized all writing as to procure 
the total neglect of the national ballad-poetry. Eut all this 
was suddenly changed by the Crusades. For though these 
colossal expeditions were got set on foot by the Church, and 
constituted in reality but another offshoot of the same religious 
enthusiasm which had been so predominant throughout, they 
were, notwithstanding, accompanied by a powerful cooling- 
down of the ecclesiastical spirit, and led to a consequent wan- 
ing and decay of clerical authority. Germany was more than 
other countries the seat of this reaction against the influence 
of the clergy. For here the Salic emperor, Henry IT., had 
involved himself in a virulent quarrel with Pope Hildebrand 
and the Church ; and this mutual animosity had, if possible, 
still increased under his son, and under the emperors of the 
Hohenstaufen line. The reigns of Frederick Earbarossa and 
his grandson, Frederick II., are one uninterrupted struggle 
against the Papacy and its allies. ~No wonder, therefore, if 
the kind of poetry which such sovereigns patronized breathed 
a more secular spirit than that which had preceded. The mind 
of Germany, though not less religious than before, had thrown 



36 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



off the yoke of clerical guidance in all literary productions. 
]S T ot only were the subjects of composition no longer devo- 
tional — not only was the old national ballad- poetry drawn from 
its obscurity, and the prejudice, which hitherto had stood in 
the way of its cultivation set at defiance — but also the authors 
themselves ceased to belong to the clerical order. A new class 
of composers now started into existence. In the first century 
and a half they were the knights ; in the following age, up to 
the Eeformation, they were the artizans. 

Chivalrous minstrelsy, with which we have first to deal, is 
called in German Minne-Gesang, from Minne, which means 
Love, its main theme, though not the only one. The impulse 
to this kind of composition came from France ; the poets of 
Provence, called Troubadours, were its first inventors, and 
thence it spread to Flanders, and subsequently to Germany. 
The first Crusade, from 1096 to 1099, was the chief medium 
through which minstrelsy was thus propagated. In that great 
enterprise the Flemish, and generally the Northern French 
nobility, had taken the lead ; and as there were also a large 
number of German Crusaders in this, and still more in all the 
following Crusades, this had the effect of acquainting the Ger- 
man knights with the poetry of their neighbours. At every 
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, at every tournament, at every 
hospitable visit, in the hostelry, and in the banqueting-hall, 
as well as on the lonely highroad that led to the East, the 
German knights met these minstrels from France ; and often 
stood speechless while they listened to their soul-stirring 
songs about Eoland the Brave, or Arthur and his knights, or 
about the far-off lady of their devotion. The troubadour 
touched the innermost chord of their music-loving heart. 
They caught his spirit, and soon began warbling love-ditties, 
or celebrating heroic exploits, in their own native idiom. The 
more gifted among them became composers themselves, now 
called Minnesingers, while the others were content to repeat 
the poetry of their more talented companions. The choice of 



SECOND PEEIOD EEA. OE THE MIXISTESAXGEE, ETC. 37 

a fitting hero for their effusions could not puzzle them long. 
Some, indeed, borrowed the topics of the troubadours, espe- 
cially the legends about " Arthur and his Kound Table but 
the more judicious among them thought of their own ancestral 
heroes, and selected Siegfried, Hagen, and Dietrich, with the 
rest of their fellows, as the most worthy subjects of German 
minstrelsy. Thus the epic and the lyric began to flourish in 
a degree unprecedented either in Germany or in any other 
part of Europe. The new art had soon become the universal 
fashion of knighthood. Several mighty princes set the ex- 
ample by assembling around them their favourite minstrels, 
and occasionally composing verses themselves. Thus the 
courts of the Hohenstaufen emperors became the resorts of 
the Minnesanger ; but also the Dukes of Austria, and, above 
all other princes, the Landgrave Hermann of Thiiringen, de- 
voted all the means in their power to the encouragement of 
chivalrous poetry. The latter held, in the year 1207, a famous 
meeting, or contest, at his castle of Wartburg, and bestowed 
prizes on the most successful composers. Hence this event is 
often called the " "Wartburg war," although it was but a 
harmless pastime. No less than 150 Minnesanger are enume- 
rated between the years 1150 and 1300. In giving an account 
of their compositions, we shall fitly class them and the whole 
poetry of the age under the four following heads : — 

1 . Poetical chronicles and epopees based on history. Among 
these, poems on Alexander the king of Macedon, on Csesar, 
tineas, and Eishop Hanno of Cologne, lead the van. Eut 
the mighty names of the JSTibelungenlied and Gudrun, both 
taken from German traditions, obscure all others. 

2. Then there are some more fictitious romances, borrowed 
from the troubadours, and founded on the vague Celtic legends 
about King Arthur and his Eound Table. In these Hart- 
mann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach, and Gottfried von 
Strasburg, are the most successful. 

3. A third class of composition is made up of amorous and 

£ 



38 



GERMAN LITERATURE . 



other lyrical songs, called Leiche, or Lieder. In these Walther 
von derVogelweide, and afterwards Meister Konrad von Wirz- 
burg, chiefly excel. 

4. The last class are fables, satires, and didactic poems, such 
as the semi-epic fable of the Reynard ; Amis, the roguish priest ; 
Freidank's wise saws ; and the Eenner of Trimberg. With 
these the poetry of the thirteenth century ended. Prose writ- 
ings there were none of any importance throughout this age. 

1. Versified Chronicles. — The era of mediaeval minstrelsy 
opens with several historico-political chronicles, composed be- 
tween 1150 and 1200, and chiefly remarkable as having pointed 
out the way to a new and better style, namely, that of the na- 
tional epic. The authors of this hybrid of truth and fiction 
lived nearly all of them on or near the Lower Rhine, and one 
or two of them are Low-Germans. This circumstance cannot 
altogether be accidental. In all probability it was nothing 
else than the proximity to Flanders, whence the current of 
troubabour poetry flowed into Germany, that gave the Rhenish 
minstrels the start of their southern compatriots. An addi- 
tional reason may have been that at that time the Emperor 
Lothario II., and the pro-papal "Welf family, shed considerable 
lustre on Saxony, their family possession, and thus procured 
to the north-west of Germany once more a temporary prepon- 
derance in politics as well as in literature. There were also 
some clergymen, or Pfaffen, among these authors. But this 
was the last instance for several centuries to come in which 
either the clerical order or the Low-German portion of Ger- 
many made any contributions to poetry. Henceforth the ge- 
nius of minstrelsy departs from both ; it withdraws to Swabia, 
and becomes secular in spirit. 

The Hannolied (1150) seems to have been one of the 
earliest of these chronicles, though in this, as in the case of the 
others, we cannot give more than approximate dates. It was 
written in the rhymed iambics, and sang the praises of Saint 
Hanno, Archbishop of Cologne, who died in 1075. This pre- 



SECOND PERIOD EEA OF THE MIKSTESANGEE, ETC. 39 

late was a stern and haughty elector of the empire, remarka- 
ble in German history, It was he who seized, in 1062, the 
Emperor Henry IY., when yet a boy, and educated the youth, 
much against his will, at Cologne, until a still more unscru- 
pulous dignitary of the Church, Bishop Adalbert of Bremen, 
managed to kidnap the imperial alumnus for his own ferula. 
The Church has canonized the Archbishop, and the Hanno- 
lied makes him the hero of its enraptured eulogies. However, 
to diversify the theme, the pious author reports, in the space 
of his forty-nine stanzas, a variety of other events but loosely 
connected with the prelate. As Hanno had been a reigning 
sovereign in Cologne, and as Cologne was an old Eoman town, 
we are treated to some Eoman history ; and, apropos of the 
Eomans, we also hear of some Greeks. Thus Lucretia and 
Scasvola figure in the song with Caesar and the bull of Phalaris. 

The Kaiser- Chronik, or Chronicle of the Emperors, resembles 
the preceding poem in vagueness of conception, as well as in 
style ; its date is about 1160. Whole stanzas of both poems are 
literally the same, perhaps because the authors both copied a 
third, but unknown chronicler. The original object of the 
Kaiser-Chronik was to celebrate the Emperors of Germany up 
to the author's time ; but as these sovereigns bore the title of 
" Eoman Caesars," the chronicler thought it incumbent on 
him to go back to the history of Eome. The prototype of 
the Holy Eoman Empire is found in no other personage than 
Eomulus, first king of Eome. 

The Eolandslied (1175) is the work of the Pfaffe or clergy- 
man Konrad. It sings of Charlemagne's expedition into Spain, 
as well as of the exploits and death of his famous nephew, 
Eoland the .Brave. This illustrious knight had long been the 
hero of the troubadours, but now he was for the first time in- 
troduced into Germany. Konrad's poem is the earliest known 
imitation of the Erench. It is said that Henry the Lion, the 
head of the Welf family, and leader of the pro-Papal party, 
encouraged and patronized the author. 



40 



GEEMAK LITEEATUEE. 



The Alexanderlied (1180) was composed by another PfafFe, 
named Lamprecht. The Macedonian king was his subject, 
and a Trench troubadour, Aubri de Besangon, his probable 
source. "We may judge of the historical notions of this age, 
when we read that Alexander tried to storm and capture Para- 
dise, which all his expeditions were intended to discover. But 
both he and his Grecians are represented as obliged to depart, 
without getting inside the pays de Cocagne, because they 
lacked the essential which would have unlocked the gates — 
namely, humility. 

The JEneid or rather Eneft of Heinrich von Yeldecke (1185) 
is the last of this kind of compositions. Its author, who is 
often honoured with the title of " Father of Minstrelsy," was 
a Westphalian by birth ; and this accounts for the many Low- 
Germanisms observable in his chronicle, just as in the others 
of the same time and origin. The native dialect of these lower 
Ehenish writers sometimes coloured their generally High- Ger- 
man diction. Yeldecke lived chiefly at Cleves, on the Rhine, 
with the counts of the Schwanenburg, in one of the classical 
spots of German legends. He also frequented the castle of 
Wartburg, where the contest of the Minnesanger was held 
under his presidency. He stood in great repute for skill in 
composition and acquaintance with the technical rules of 
ministrelsy. The chronicle, or rather the romance, to which 
he owed his reputation as a poet, was an abstract of his queer 
notions of the Trojan war and the fate of iEneas. It was not 
founded on either Yirgil or Homer ; for Yeldecke could not 
read either, if he could read at all. His chief source was an 
obscure French troubadour, whose name and poetry are both 
unknown. 

Lay of the Nilelungen.— Der Nibelungen Noth, or the Cala- 
mity of the Mbelungen, is the title of the most sublime mo- 
nument of mediaeval poetry. This epic, the Iliad of Germany, 
treats of the murder of Siegfried, an ancient hero of the earlier 
half of the fifth century, and of the ruthless revenge which his 



SECOND PERIOD ERA OF THE MINKESANGER, ETC. 41 

implacable widow, Kriemhild, inflicted on her husband's as- 
sassins. It is founded on an old tradition, which ever since 
the time of the great migration had been current among the 
people; and it arose probably out .of a number of ancient bal- 
lads, in which that tradition and other events like it were 
handed down in Germany for many generations past. The 
anterior existence of these ballads, comparable in all respects 
to the alliterative Hildebrandslied, is rendered probable by a 
variety of circumstances, one of which is the metre. The lay 
of the JSTibelungen contains unmistakeable traces of alliteration 
almost in every stanza, and we may reasonably surmise that 
these are but vestiges of the old ballads which were incorpo- 
rated in the Nibelungen-lay. In other respects the verse is 
entirely different from that of the song of Hildebrand. The 
poem is written in rhymed stanzas, of four lines to each stanza ; 
each line has two hemistichs of three iambi, and an unac- 
cented syllable is added in the middle, before the pause. The 
final hemistich alone has four instead of three iambi, which 
increase in length was intended to give to the stanza a more 
majestic and sweeping close, just as in the famous Spenserian * 
stanza which Lord Byron reintroduced. The first four lines 
run thus : — 

" Uns ist in alten Mahren Wunders viel geseit 

Von Helden lobebaren, von grosser Arebeit, 

Von Freuden und Hochzeiten, von Weinen und von Klagen, 

Von kiihner Rechen Streiten mogt ihr mm Wunder horen sag'n." 

[There are, in ancient story, full many wonders told 

Of men of matchless glory, of labours great and bold, 

Of joys and festive revels, of weeping and of woe, 

Of daring heroes' battling, their wond'rous deeds ye now shall know. 

In the earlier portion of the epic the scene is laid at Worms, 
the capital of the Burgundians, about the year 430 a. d., or 
thereabout, when Xing Giinther was reigning there. The lay 
opens with the arrival of young Siegfried from the Nether- 

e 2 



42 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



lands. He comes to sue for the hand of the fair Kriemhild, the 
king's sister. His suit is accepted, and he is promised the 
hand of the princess on condition that he will first assist Giin- 
ther in his own bridal expedition. The king was enamoured 
of Brunhild of Isenland, or Iceland, in the far north, a fierce 
amazon, or "Walkyre, who refused to marry any one of her 
suitors unless she were previously overcome by him in single 
combat. Thus Siegfried accompanies Giinther to meet Brun- 
hild ; and when the king fails to subdue his cruel antagonist, 
Siegfried rescues him from ignominy and death, by vanquishing 
Brunhild for him in disguise. His victory secures to both the 
attainment of their wishes, and a twofold marriage is speedily 
celebrated. But the proud amazon conceives a hidden con- 
tempt for her husband, as well as a passion for Siegfried, which, 
from not being gratified, turns into sullen rage, and mixes 
with jealousy and hatred towards Kriemhild, the adored bride 
of Siegfried. Years, however, roll on in undisturbed peace, 
while Siegfried lives at Hanten. on the Ehine, in the Nether- 
lands, some two hundred miles from "Worms. One day, how- 
ever, ten years after their marriage, Siegfried and his wife come 
on a visit to Giinther, and stay some time with their relatives. 
With that opportunity the long- smouldering jealousy between 
Kriemhild and Brunhild bursts out in open flames. A quar- 
rel about precedence in church (for they are represented as 
Christians) is the prelude. Brunhild treats the other as her 
inferior and her vassal's wife, while Kriemhild taunts her 
sister-in-law with her earlier defeat, and actually shows her, 
in derision, the very girdle and ring which Siegfried had taken 
from her as trophies of his victory. Thereupon Brunhild's 
rage knows no bounds. She assembles in secret a council, and 
demands vengeance. But, as it seemed dangerous to touch 
Kriemhild while her husband was alive, the death of the latter 
is decided upon. The king and his two brothers are induced 
to connive by the promise of the fabulous treasures which 
Siegfried was said to possess ; and Hagen, a grim old knight, 



SECOND PEEIOD ESA OF THE MINNESAXGEK, ETC. 43 

and a vassal of Gunther's, pledges himself to do the deed. 
Siegfried is decoyed into a forest on a hunt ; and on the brink 
of a cool streamlet, whither he had gone to quench his thirst, 
the hero is pierced by Hagen' s javelin. After a brief struggle, 
he breathes his last, sadly moaning for Kriemhild. 

The corpse is brought home, and csrried to the grave amidst ' 
the agonies of his widow. She wishes to go home ; but Giin- 
ther, who half repents the deed, and professes to pity the con- 
dition of his sister, promises her safety if she will only stay in 
Worms. What is more, he artfully promises to fetch for her 
from the Netherlands all the treasures of her husband, espe- 
cially the " hoard'' of the Mbelungen, a fabulous heap of gems 
and gold, which Siegfried had taken from the giants of Fog- 
land, or the ±ubelungen, from Nebel, which means fog. Poor 
Kriemhild yields to necessity, and buries her plans of ven- 
geance under the guise of a reconciliation. The treasure, which 
had so long excited the greediness as well as the curiosity of 
the Eurgundians, is fetched. Twelve cartloads of gold and 
jewellery come down the Bhine, and are presented to Kriem- 
hild. But before long Hagen seizes on the hoard, and de- 
prives her of it in the name of the king, on pretence that she 
had employed it to bribe the people, and to spread disaffection. 
When thus the treasure is in the hands of the Eurgundians, 
these become the Nibelungen Lords, or the Mbelungen, which 
title had before belonged to Siegfried after having taken it from 
its previous owners. But the hoard brings them no more luck 
than it had done to any of its earlier possessors. 

In the meantime Kriemhild is fretting in solitude. Tor 
years she will not speak to her brothers — on Hagen she will not 
look. At length a better day dawns for her. Attila, or Etzel, 
king of the Huns, asks for her hand, and sends his vassal, 
Eiidiger, to W^orms, with offers of marriage. Kriemhild long 
declines ; but at last, when Eiidiger has sworn to avenge her 
wrongs, she consents to become King Etzel' s wife, and departs 
from Burgundy to the camp of the Huns, far down the Danube 



44 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



in Hungary. But, notwithstanding the kindness of her power- 
ful husband, her former happiness will not return, and every- 
day she prays, as she had done for years, that she may be 
avenged on Siegfried's assassins. At length she prevails on 
the king to invite her relatives in Burgundy to come to a 
festival in Hungary. Giinther unsuspectingly accepts the in- 
vitation, but Hagen clearly perceives the snare laid for him. 
His apprehensions, however, do not deter him from accom- 
panying his sovereign into the land of the strangers ; and seve- 
ral hundred Burgundians start on the expedition, led by their 
Mbelungen chieftains. On their journey they receive repeated 
warnings, and ominous forebodings of impending danger; but 
they proceed, and are joined by Kiidiger, as well as by Dietrich 
of Bern (Verona), who, with his armour-bearer, Hildebrand, 
was likewise going to King Attila's camp. Shortly after their 
arrival, a part of the Burgundians are surprised in an hostelry, 
and mercilessly put to the sword. The princes and Hagen 
were just at a banquet in Attila's hall, when the fight began. 
Here at length Kriemhild rises, and reminds the Mbelungen of 
their old misdeed ; she hurls at them furious threats and in- 
vectives, and advises them to surrender at mercy. But Hagen, 
who had foreseen this event, and knew he had nothing to hope, 
persuades his liege lord to refuse this proposal ; and, leaving 
viands and goblets, both parties rush to arms. The doom of 
the Mbelungen is now at hand. Kiidiger, Dietrich, Hilde- 
brand, and others, take up the cause of Kriemhild ; the Bur- 
gundians are slain one by one ; the hall is set on fire ; and at 
last Giinther and Hagen lie fettered at the feet of Kriemhild. 
The sight of the battle, and the loss of a son, whom she had 
by Siegfried, had exasperatad her to such a pitch of fury, that 
on failing to elicit from her prisoners the secret of the hoard, 
which they had hidden, she first orders Giinther to be beheaded, 
and then stabs Hagen with the sword of Siegfried. Her atro- 
cious conduct, however, causes deep disgust among the heroes 
present ; and, overpowered by his loathing, Hildebrand cuts 



SECOND PEEIOD — EEA OF THE MiySTESANGER, ETC. 45 

Kriemhild down to the ground. Thus the first and last of all 
the noble Eurgundians lie bleeding or dead, and none returns 
but a solitary minstrel, who told their tale. 

Such is a brief outline of this great epopee, which excels 
all other literary productions of Germany, both past and pre- 
sent, by as much as the Iliad excels all other Greek poetry. 
The grandeur of its action, the pathos of its scenes, the con- 
sistency of its characters, and the heroic simplicity of the nar- 
rative, are no less admirable than its general historic truth. 
As a picture of old German manners, and as a description of 
the state of society in and after the migration, the Mbelun- 
genlied leaves little to be desired. The names of the principal 
personages are matter of history ; so is also the destruction of 
Eurgundian tribes and cities by King Attila, about the year 
450 ; and as the king of the Huns had previously reduced 
several Teutonic princes to a state of vassalage, and used to 
assemble them in his camp, near Euda, in Hungary, the visit 
of the jSTibelungen has nothing improbable in it ; but little is 
known in history about Siegfried, whose name occurs all the 
oftener in ancient German mythology. The only palpable 
anachronism seems to be the presence of Dietrich of Yerona. 
It is usually supposed that he is the famous Theodric, king 
of the Ostrogoths, who defeated Odoacer at Yerona (German, 
Eern) in the year 476, and who became thereupon king of 
Italy, and died in 526. If this be really the case, and no other 
Dietrich be meant, though he had many namesakes among the 
Gothic chiefs of that time, nothing remains but to assume that 
the bard has in this instance taken some poetical liberty, in 
introducing a chieftain who, in the year 445, or thereabouts, 
when the catastrophe must be supposed to have taken place, 
could scarcely be more than ten years old, if he was at all 
alive at that time. 

As regards the time of composition, the only thing known 
for certain is, that the poem received its present shape about 
1210, by the hsftids of a minstrel whose name is not known. 



46 



GERMAN LITEEATTJEE. 



Heinrich von Ofterdingen has been mentioned as the one who 
gave it its final touches, but on no sufficient evidence. The 
versification is of no very ancient date, as the ISTibelungen 
stanza was only invented about the year 1 1 70, and was never 
used before that time. In addition to the old ballads which 
served as a ground- work for the ultimate compilers, a Latin 
version, dating from the year 980, is mentioned in the " Wail 
of the Mbelungen," a continuation of the lay itself. Summing 
up all these circumstances, in their bearing on the origin of 
the poem, we come to the conclusion, that about 1210 one or 
more Minnesanger reduced some pro-existing ballads and a 
Latin version of the Mbelungen saga, to a single epic ; that 
they altered the verse employed in these alliterative ballads, 
and introduced a stranza of their own instead of it ; that they 
also introduced into the assemblage of separate stories greater 
coherence and connexion; and the result of this remodelling 
process is the Nibelungenlied, as it has come down to us. Such 
is the hypothesis now generally received in Germany. The 
late Professor Lachmann, of Berlin, — the same who attempted 
to trace seventeen original songs as the component parts of 
the Iliad, — is also the most renowned advocate of a similar 
composition-hypothesis, in regard to the old German epic ; 
indeed, his case is stronger in the latter instance than in the 
former. His disciple Haupt, and Simrock, the translator of 
the Mbelungen into modern German, have adopted Lach- 
mann's views. Others, especially Holtzmann and Pfeiffer, re- 
ject the idea of part composition, as unworthy of a work of 
genius ; and by pointing to the marks of plan and design oc- 
curring throughout the epic, plead for a single author, though 
they allow interpolation and revision by later hands. The first 
composer is supposed to have preceded by some centuries the 
final version of 1210. The latter portions of the poem were evi- 
dently composed in Austria, or by one who had lived in Aus- 
tria (P. Pfeiffer thinks it was Kiiremberger) ; they show a close 
acquaintance with the scenery of the DanuBe and the geo- 



SECOND PERIOD ERA OF TECE HiTSXESANGER, ETC. 47 

graphy of the Hungarian frontier land. It is also probable 
that this part of the poem was written or re-written during 
the Hungarian wars, under Henry the Fowler and Otho I., in 
933 and 955, because the terror at that time spread by the 
Huns or Magyars, would naturally tend to revive any old tra- 
dition about King Attila and the great migration. 

Gudrun, and other Lays.— The second great epopee of this 
era is Gudrun, or Guthrun. This lay narrates an incident of 
JSTorman piracy, and of life on the shores of the North Sea. 
The heroine of the story is a faithful Frisian maid, who, in the 
absence of her father and bridegroom, is carried off by a re- 
jected suitor, and has to perform menial services on the coast 
of Normandy. Yet she will never consent to break her vow, 
nor become the wife of the traitor who had carried her off. 
Meantime her friends seek everywhere to discover a trace of 
the lost one ; but all their researches fail. At last, however, 
their efforts are crowned with success. One morning, when 
Gudrun is washing clothes by the seaside, and laments her 
cruel fate, her distress attracts the notice of two boatmen, who 
had but lately landed on the shore, and seemed to scour the 
country as if in search of something. One of these men is 
Gudr un's lover, who soon recognises, and forthwith rescues his 
former bride. The castle of the pirate is stormed ; and after 
many acts of retaliation, though not unmixed with generosity, 
the fleet of the Frisians, which hovers in the bay, carries home 
the faithful maiden to better days of love and happiness. The 
pirate, who had become a prisoner in his turn, receives pardon 
from Gudrun, and gratefully accepts the hand of one of her 
friends. 

The versification of Gudrun, and the date of its composition, 
are the same as those of the Mbelungen-lay. Other epic poems 
of lesser note are " Horny- skinned Siegfried,' ' " King Diet- 
rich's Fight with the Dragon," " Laurin the Dwarf," and 
" Ecke's Expedition." In the majority of these poems either 
Siegfried or Dietrich is the hero; and all were collected for 



43 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



the first time in 1472, in the " Helden-Buch" of Caspar Roon, 
where also the ballad of Hildebrand and his son figures, in the 
shape of a heroic poem of about thirty stanzas. 

2. Romances about King Arthur and Ms Round Table. — The 
class of writings to which we now pass differs from the pre- 
ceding in two respects. It is more fantastic and unhistorical 
than most of the lays before mentioned. Besides, it is bor- 
rowed from a foreign literature, and celebrates other than Ger- 
man heroes. The Minnesanger selected their themes not only 
in the ancestral legends of their own nation, but imitated the 
troubadours in resorting to Celtic or British traditions. Ar- 
thur, king of the Dammonii, and the twelve knights who sat 
round his table, were the personages who filled their imagina- 
tion ; and the search for the holy Graal, or the cup from which 
our Saviour drank at the last supper, was strangely interwoven 
with the marvellous exploits of these worthies. In the ro- 
mances of this class the laws of chronology, geography, and 
history, were utterly set at nought; the characters were unna- 
tural, and devoid of local or national colouring ; scarcely a ves- 
tige of resemblance to the Celtic traditions, themselves but 
shadowy legends, was left, save some distorted Eritish name ; 
while in the thread of their imaginary incidents a sickly af- 
fectation of saintliness was often followed by indelicate pas- 
sages, or by proofs of excessive admiration for the female sex. 
Three Minnesanger acquired especial fame among their contem- 
poraries for the pathos and brilliancy of their romances. 

The first of these was Hartmann von Aue (1170-1210), a 
Swabian by birth. He learned some Latin and Trench in his 
youth, and joined the Crusades in 1197, but soon returned from 
the East. His two principal poems are "Erek," composed in 
1197, and " Iwein" about 1210. Eoth are called after Knights 
of the Eound Table ; and the latter especially displays no mean 
skill in its narrative, which recounts the feats and mishaps of 
a love-sick and disappointed cavalier. Hartmann has also left 
a romance on a Swabian legend, called "Der arme Heinrich." 



SECOND PEEIOD EKA OE TEE MEN KE SAN GEE. ETC. 49 

The second, Wolfram von Eschenbach, was born about 1200, 
at Anspaeh, in Bavaria. He was rather poor, and probably 
his life was chequered with struggles and disappointments. 
Landgrave Hermann, of Thiiringen, often invited him to 
Eisenach. "Wolfram had not learned to read -or write ; but he 
understood Erench, and this helped him on the road to compo- 
sition, which was transmitted by the Minnesanger viva voce to 
others, who could write. He has left many lyrical verses ; 
among his romances his " Parcival" (1205) and his " Titurel" 
are the most famous. "Wolfram was an earnestly religious poet, 
remarkable for deep feeling and scrupulous morality. Some- 
times his sentimentality becomes rather morbid. The romance 
of Lohengrin, which describes the adventures of Parcival' s 
son, is also ascribed to him. 

The third romance-writer, Gottfried von Strasburg, was 
only a simple burgher, but well educated. He also worked upon 
Erench versions of Eritish legends, and commenced in this style 
a poem entitled "Tristan and Isolde," but died, about 1225, 
without having finished it. His Tristan is a mediaeval Hon 
Juan, though the hero gets off without falling into the clutches 
of the devil, perhaps only owing to the unfinished state of the 
work, certainly not because he deserved a better fate. As the 
nature of the subject indicates, Gottfried was a far more 
worldly poet than either of his two predecessors. His prin- 
ciples were rather Epicurean, and he little conceals in his work 
his relish for physical pleasures. He seems most to appreciate 
those qualities which are calculated either to procure or to 
enhance sensual enjoyment. 

3. Lyrical Poetry. — The Minnesanger employed themselves 
not only in heroic compositions, but also in lyrics ; and in this 
class some of their happiest effusions must be reckoned, always 
excepting the great epopee of the age. The spirit of chivalry 
naturally tended to lyrical composition, from its gallant and 
amorous bias, and from its almost unbounded veneration for 
the female sex. Hence this is the true era of love-ditties. The 

F 



50 



GERMAN LITEE ATT7EE . 



charms of the fair and the hopes of lovers, the sweets of reci- 
procated affection and the smart of a disappointed frame, the 
parting, the meeting, the expectation, and the farewell — all 
these have been expressed by the poetic knights in a thousand 
different ways from the pensive to the passionate, from the 
naive to the cynical. Sometimes, however, the everlasting key- 
note changes a little. Their lyric verse describes also the 
balmy month of May, or the sunset irradiating the sky ; or 
some devout religious aspirations break forth from the poet's 
bosom, or else the state of the Church and the condition of 
the Empire induce them to give utterance to anticipations 
more bitter than sanguine. 

"Walter von der Yogelweide is the greatest lyrical poet of 
that age. This Minnesanger was born either on the Danube 
or on the Maine, about the year 1165. He travelled much, and 
seems to have known a great number of eminent contempo- 
raries, such as King Philippe Auguste of France, the Emperor 
Otho IY. of Germany, Landgrave Hermann of Thiiringia, and 
others. He joined Erederick I.'s Crusade in 1226, and died in 
the following year, at Wurzburg. Many of his Lieder or 
Leiche are excellent verses, even in their modern translations. 

Konrad von "Wurzburg was a burgher of great learning. As 
lie was not a knight, he bore the appellation Meister, a term 
which subsequently meant an artisan who has finished his ap- 
prenticeship. His chief places of residence were Easel and 
Strasburg, and he died in 1287. In addition to his lyrical 
poems, he has left also two romances, — one on the Trojan war, 
and another on the Emperor Otho with the Beard. His verse 
and diction were very polished, but his poetry abounded in ex- 
aggerations ; neither does he possess the lofty enthusiasm of 
the earlier and chivalrous Minnesanger. 

There are many minstrels of less note, such as Ulrich von 
Lichtenstein, Dietmar von Aist, Otto von Botenlaube. Eairen- 
berger, the supposed Austrian composer of the latter half of 
theMbelungen, and, lastly, Eeinmar von Zweter. 



SECOND PERIOD — ERA OF THE MINNES ANGER, ETC. 51 

4. Didactic Poetry, Fables, and Satires, — Among the poetical 
traditions which circulated in Germany from the earliest age, 
and were revived by poets of successive periods, the animal- 
epopee of Eeynard the Fox holds a distinguished rank. The 
hero of this popular story was a cunning fox, who by con- 
stantly cheating the other beasts, especially an awkward but 
well-meaning bear named Bruin, gets himself incessantly into 
scrapes. On one occasion he is on the point of hanging for his 
multifarious offences, when the eloquent pleading of his dying 
speech once more extricates his neck from the noose. Each 
animal in this fable had a particular nickname, and bore a 
distinct character. Moral reflections were not aimed at, as is 
the case in the ordinary or .ZEsopean fable, but only a droll 
and suggestive caricature of human practices under the guise 
of animals. The antiquity of this epic fable, as well as that 
of the nicknames connected with it, is demonstrated by an 
obvious fact. The French names for the fox and the donkey 
are renard and haudet, both of which are derived from their 
old German types in the fable — namely, Eeynhart and Bald- 
win. This clearly proves that the Franks possessed an inti- 
mate acquaintance with this story before they left Germany. 
During the course of the Middle Ages several versions of the 
pranks of Master Eeynard appeared in France, even before any 
German poet made them the subject of written composition. 
An Alsatian poet of the middle of the twelfth century was 
the first German who attempted to versify this theme in High- 
German. His name was Heinrich der Gleissner or Glichesare, 
an assumed epithet, which meant The Shining. He took in 
only a part of the story, under the title of " Isegrim's !N"oth," 
or, " The Troubles of Isegrim," the Wolf. But in 1250 a Low- 
German poet, "Willem of Mattoc, composed a Dutch Edinaart, 
which was remodelled in 1498 by Hermann Barkhusen of 
Liibeck. This latter book became in 1798 the chief founda- 
tion on which Gothe proceeded in his famous hexameter ver- 
sion of the same tale. The drollery and popularity of Eeineke's 



52 



GERMAN LITEEATTJEE. 



story has received additional attractions from the talented 
illustrations of the painter Kaulbach. 

A strictly didactic work is "Ereidank's Beseheidenheit," 
or, " The Wise Saws of Mr. Ereidank," a proper noun, which 
is supposed to stand for the lyrist "Walther von der Vogelweide. 
This work contains a series of prudential counsels, and some 
o-ood-humoured remarks on the actions of men ; its language 
is simple and sober. 

More satirical is "Der Pfaffe Amis/' by Strieker. The 
clergy of the middle ages are ridiculed in this amusing pro- 
duction by recounting the tricks of a roguish friar. Amis, a 
reverend vagrant of great cunning, insinuates himself into the 
graces of others, to make good his living ; he resides in Eng- 
land, where he sells the relics of long-departed saints, or trades 
with old books, or deals in pictures. Once he goes to a mona- 
stery, and gulls the abbot. By rendering himself eminently 
useful and agreeable to his superior in all kinds of trifling 
affairs, he gets an appointment as steward of the household, 
and turns his supreme command over the larder to a capital 
account. Another time a farmer's wife becomes the victim of 
her simplicity. As Amis gives her ocular proof of his ability 
to do miracles, she mistakes him for a saint ; and while he 
grants her indulgences for all sins, past, present, and future^ 
she testifies her gratitude with the best produce of her garden, 
her kitchen, and her distaff. Even a bishop gets a lesson from 
Amis ; for when required to teach a donkey to read the Eible, 
Amis discovers for the bishop this excellent recipe — he puts 
allowances of provender between the leaves, and lo ! Master 
Baldwin soon begins turning over leaf after leaf, and brays 
very distinctly whenever he is disappointed in his search. 

The last poem requiring mention is Hugo von Trimberg's 
' ' Renner," a succession of proverbs, reflections, fables, allegories, 
and stones of a moral and satirical tendency. It was written^ 
about 1300, by a Bavarian schoolmaster. 



SECOND PEEIOD THE MEISTEESANGEE. 



53 



CHAPTER V. 

CONTINUATION OF SECOND PERIOD— THE MEISTERSANGER (1300-1534). 

Origin of Meister-Gesang. — The brilliant era of the Minne- 
singers was but of short duration. Towards the end of the 
thirteenth century a visible decay overtook knighthood through- 
out Europe ; and the decline of chivalry brought about, as a 
consequence, the cessation of heroic ministrelsy, as well as the 
subsidence of all those amorous ditties and martial romances 
to which the lofty genius of the knights had given birth. We 
can always observe that the changes in the history of litera- 
ture are merely the result of antecedent changes in the social 
condition of the nations ; and of this law the present instance 
affords a striking illustration. Scarcely had the Crusades 
come to an end, and the impetus which they gave to chival- 
rous enterprise fairly subsided, when their literary leadership 
departed from the knights, along with their political influence. 
When the expeditions to the Holy Land no longer engaged 
their attention, they employed their time chiefly in lawless 
feuds and unbridled rapine, so that their contemporaries soon 
learned to hate and despise them as much as they had once 
loved and admired them. The subsequent invention of gun- 
powder rendered the social position of the knights still worse. 
Their once terrible weapons and armour now proved harmless 
on the field of battle, and their formerly impregnable castles 
were battered down with cannon by the emissaries of law and 
justice. In proportion as the knights had sunk, the cities had 
risen. Commerce and industry were showering wealth and 
power on the burghers ; nor was it long before poetry also 
found in their town-halls and club-houses that shelter and care 
which knightly castles had ceased to afford. Henceforth the 
patronage of art devolved on the middle and lower classes ; 
and the German Huse, who had formerly been the guest of 

f 2 



54 



GEEMAN LITEHATUEE. 



the noble and the mighty in the land, now sought the humble 
dwellings of the artisans, as a welcome, albeit a degraded 
companion. Even among the townspeople, it was not the 
rich, but the poor and plebeian part of the population, who 
had still a heart and leisure for minstrelsy, when poetry was 
exiled everywhere else. In most cities of Germany, especially 
those of the south, the industrial portion of the community 
enjoyed a preponderance of numbers, and also of spirit, over 
the wealthier votaries of commerce or agriculture. The arti- 
sans had formed themselves into large associations, called 
Guilds, and these became the true nurseries of poetry. The 
farmer and the merchant were, from the nature of their occu- 
pation, less likely to relish verse and song than the more se- 
dentary mechanic. The latter might find room for music 
during the very progress of his work ; and on Sundays, or 
when holiday time had come, he might lay aside his tools, and 
repair to the hall or inn of his guild, to display before a crowd 
of admiring companions his talent for recitation, or his gift as 
a songster and verse-maker, until his powers were exhausted, 
or his audience grew tired. As many members, however, 
were altogether indifferent about poetry, and thought it an 
irksome importation among the affairs of their professional 
meetings, it was soon found more convenient to establish 
separate inns and special associations for the amateur verse- 
makers of each guild. Here the poetically-disposed among 
the weavers, barbers, shoemakers, or tailors, might meet kin- 
dred spirits, and indulge their favourite pastime to their hearts' 
content. Thus arose the Schools of Meister- Sanger, or asso- 
ciations of poetical artisans, clubs composed of the literary 
dilettanti among all the guilds of a town, and differing from 
the professional associations only by their purely ornamental 
character, and a total absence of any lucrative trade or pursuit. 
These "schools" were in other respects perfect artisan guilds; 
they kept their particular statutes, had their privileges, and 
charters signed by the highest authority in the land; they ac- 



SECOND PEEIOD THE MEISTEKSANGEE. 



•55 



quired property, and observed certain ceremonies on stated 
days. Nobody could become a member of their corporation 
except after giving some satisfactory evidence of bis skill as a 
verse-maker. They held regular meetings in their club-houses 
during the week, and on Sunday afternoons they used to as- 
semble in the church. The merits of performers were sub- 
jected to the judgment of certain umpires, called Iferker. 
These also kept lists or registers of rules on metre, rhyme, and 
song, and this their code of laws on poetry went by the name 
of Tahulatur. The first institution of an artisan club occurs, 
before 1300, in the city of Mayence, where Heinrich Frauenlob 
is said to have founded a school of Meister Sanger. His example 
was soon imitated in Strasburg, Niirnberg, Augsburgh, Yienna, 
and Ulm. In the fifteenth century scarcely any large town 
of Germany was without an association of this kind, and the 
reader will probably not be surprised to learn that some of 
them are still in existence in the southern cities. 

Compositions of the Meister Sanger. — The preceding exposi- 
tion can leave little doubt as to the radical difference that must 
have existed between the Minne-Gresang and the low-bred 
poetry which succeeded it. The former was addressed to bril- 
liant audiences of knights and noble ladies, with their retinues 
of squires and pages, assembled in some spacious baronial hall, 
amidst trophies of war and time-honoured armorial bearings. 
Chivalrous exploit was its theme, or stirring amorous adven- 
ture. On the contrary, the Meistersanger found but humble 
hearers, and were accordingly compelled to lower both their 
tone and their subject. There may have been some sage alder- 
man, and here and there an old-fashioned burgher's wife; but 
the majority of the company would consist of apprentice boys, 
barmaids, and maidservants. The sort of poetry that such 
an audience would delight in could not be otherwise than 
coarse and plebeian ; and even if a worthy member of the craft 
essayed a more dignified strain, it of necessity still took its 
colouring from the scenes of that life to which he was accus- 



56 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



tomed. Hence we find that the ordinary events of every day 
take the place of the heroic themes of the preceding era. Court- 
ships, weddings, christenings, and burials afforded the chief 
opportunities for the exercise of poetical talent ; and as the 
German artisan is a great traveller and beer-drinker, songs 
about wandering and conviviality formed another great item 
among their rhymed effusions. Germany owes to this period 
the great majority of her Yolks-Lieder, or popular songs, a 
literature more rich and varied than the corresponding pro- 
ductions of any other country, whether new or old. These 
songs tell in simple and touching language what the poor man 
in Germany thinks and feels. If they display but little art, 
they are all the more true to nature. If they have originated 
among the lower ranks, they have contributed all the more to 
the delight and happiness of thousands. They mostly refer to 
parting and meeting, to faithful love and constancy in absence. 
Some describe scenes of cheerful labour ; others dwell on the 
attractions of wine and beer ; others, again, extol the blessings 
of domestic affection, or the happiness that is diffused by a 
thrifty and good-tempered German housewife. He must have 
little music in his soul who is insensible to the homely beauty 
of these popular songs, or who, on reading the text of many 
a German Yolks-Liederbuch, can help confessing that poetry, 
so far from being the monopoly of the well-bred, cheers the 
humble as often as the rich, and reserves some of its sweetest 
touches for the poor and hard-working among mankind. 

In addition to these popular songs, whose authors are in- 
variably unknown, although their origin can be traced to this 
era, there are one or two other kinds of composition in which 
the artisans excelled. The first class are the so-called Possen 
or Schwanke, i. e. merry anecdotes, jokes, or comical scenes, 
often dramatically arranged, with which the artisan used to 
beguile his hours of toil. The tricks of the good-for-nothing 
locksmith's apprentice, who ate so enormously and filed so 
slowly, that he was obliged to leave after exchanging his tools 



SECOND PEKIGD — THE MEISTEESANGEE. 



57 



for a sausage;* the troubles of the lean crooked -backed tailor, 
who lived in terror of his shrew of a wife, and was thrashed 
by her with his own shears ; the feat of the muscular smith, 

* We subjoin the entertaining poem which embodies this artisan's 
story ; its author and the date of its composition are unknown. 

"Ein Schlosser hat'n Gesellen gehabt, 
Der hat so langsam gefeilt ; 
Doch wenn's zum Essen gegangen ist, 
Da hat er gar weislich geeilt. 
Der este in der Schussel drin, 
Der letzte wieder d'raus, 
Da ist kein Mensch so fleissig gewest, 
"Wie der im ganzen Haus. 

" Da hat einmal der Meister gesagt : 
Gesell, das begreif ich net, 
S 'ist doch so all mein Leb'tag gewest, 
So lang noch geht die Eed ; 
So wie man werkt, so frisst man auch, 
Bei dir ist's nit alsu, 
So langsam hat noch keiner gefeilt, 
Und gefressen so wie du. 

" Da sagt der Gesell: Das weiss ich schon ; 
Hat all seinen guten Grand. 
Das Essen wahrt halt gar nicht lang, 
Und 's Feilen vierzehn Stund. 
"VYenn einer miisst den ganzen Tag 
In ein' Stuck fressen fort, 
Es wiird wohl am End so langsam gehn 
Als wie beim Feilen dort. 

" Da sagt der Meister : Scheer dich fort 
Es ist gross genug die Welt. 
Geh' such dir einen andern Ort, 
Und werk' wie 's dir gefallt. 
Drauf that der Gesell sein Blindel schm'ir'n, 
Doch hatt' er noch eine Bitt. 
Die Feile behalt er, geb er mir 
Nur noch eine Knack- wurst mit." 



58 



GERMAN LITEEATT7EE. 



who, when asked to hammer right hard, struck at one blow 
through hoof, anvil, and furnace — such were the topics of the 
Possen. But, in the third place, sacred history and religion 
contributed each their own share of poetic subjects. In this 
department the Eastnachts-Spiele, or Carnival-plays, and the 
Oster-Spiele, or Easter-plays, are especially remarkable as the 
first examples of dramatic art. They may in all respects be 
compared to the corresponding productions in English litera- 
ture. The events of the Passion, the birth and the temptation 
of Christ, were represented in scenic action and attire, and the 
favourite character of the play was the devil. The Meister- 
siinger were a very devout race of men ; but they used often to 
mix the sacred and the burlesque in a manner thoroughly cha- 
racteristic of the Middle Ages, however unpalatable to modern 
tastes. Many worthy artisans composed sermons and moral 
discourses, which they read before their families or guilds-men. 
The greatest Meistersanger, Hans Sachs, has left a prodigious 
number of such sermons, some in prose, others rhymed. They 
are always on some text of the Bible, and excel by the raci- 
ness of their exposition, and the shrewdness of their moral. 
Still, neither his wisdom nor his poetry can conceal the illi- 
terate character of the author. The writings of Sachs and his 
predecessors are rather specimens of verse-cobbling or book- 
manufacture than genuine effusions of poetry. The mechanical 
spirit of their daily occupation entered largely into their lite - 
rary handiwork. 

Names and Bates of the Principal Meistersanger. — I. Hein- 
rich von Meissen, surnamed Erauenlob, or thePraiser of Women, 
lived from 1250 to 1318, chiefly at Mayence, where, it is said, 
he founded the first school of his art. He composed many 
moral and religious poems, some in recommendation of domestic 
virtues, and to this circumstance he owes his cognomen. 

2. Peter Suchenwirt and Heinrich der Teichner were 
two artisans inYienna, who composed together innumerable 
Schwiinke and moral discourses. Suchenwirt came frequently 



SECOND PESIOD THE MEISTEESAXGKEE. 



59 



into contact with the upper classes, because his trade was to 
embellish knightly coats of arms, and to adorn pedigrees, for 
which his skill in versification was often put in requisition. 
He and his friend express no very high opinion of their noble 
employers; they lived about 1360. 

3. Hans Rosenbliit, surnamed the Chatterer (or Schnepperer) 
1430-1460, was engaged in the same profession as Suchenwirt, 
and indulged in a rather coarse and vulgar kind of poetry. 
His productions are low carnival-plays and not over-decorous 
drinking songs. 

4. Muscatbliit, or, the Flower of Muscat, his contemporary, 
celebrated among other topics the accession of Albrecht II., 
in whose person the Habsburghers reascended the imperial 
throne in the year 1437. 

5. Michael Beheim (1416-1474) was a weaver's son, and 
left his father's loom to become a soldier. He has left some 
verses, describing battles and historical events of his age. 

6. Hans Folz (about 1480) was a barber in jNTiirnberg, and 
composed many carnival-plays. 

7. Hans Sachs (1494-1576) is the most renowned of all the 
artisan poets. He was a contemporary, as well as a zealous 
partisan of Luther. After wandering about a great deal, he 
settled, in 1516, in his native town. He was by trade a shoe- 
maker, whence the famous doggrel verse which imitated his 
style : — 

" Hans Sachs, der war em Schuh — 
Macher und Poet dazu." 

He was a very prolific writer. Not fewer than thirty-four 
volumes of his works have been printed. Most of his compo- 
sitions are plays and humorous stories ; but there are also po- 
pular songs, sermons, allegories, fables, and others. Among 
the rest is found a necrologue of Luther, lamenting the Re- 
former's death in 1546. 

8. Sebastian Brandt, the author of the famous ' 1 ITarrenschiff, ' ' 



60 



GEKMAN LITEit ATTJEE . 



may be classed with the Meistersanger in point of time and 
style, although his birth and station were more aristocratic 
than theirs. He was born at Strasburg in 1458, and was 
syndic of that town, where he died in 1521. He had studied 
jurisprudence in Basel, and bore the title of Doctor of Laws. 
The Emperor Maximilian bestowed on him letters of nobility 
and the title of privy councillor. His book, " The Ship of 
Fools from JNarragonia" (ISTarr means fool), appeared at Basel, 
1494, and was often re-edited, as well as translated into foreign 
languages. In the beginning of his book the author tells us 
that he selected a ship as the conveyance for his fools, because 
no other vehicle would have been large enough to hold all who 
required to be carried off to JNarragonia ; for on blowing his 
trumpet for all the simpletons of Germany to come and be 
transported to the land of their tribe, a motley crowd of mad- 
men come from far and near to hurry on board; there is a 
perfect rush to cross the gangway ; they clamber over the sides 
of the ship ; they push and elbow each other, and struggle to 
be first on the list. On numbering his passengers, he finds 
them to be 113 — fops, misers, dotards, drunkards, voluptuaries, 
bigots ; each gets his ticket, and is fitted with his cap. To 
render his satire more excusable, the honest author remem- 
bered the captain in his register ; he made him a book-fool, 
and called him Sebastian Brandt. The journey of this crazy 
assembly is described in short rhymed verse, with but little 
rhythm and elegance, but all the more point and drollery. 

Chronicles of this Age. — Although the poetry of the artisans 
is the principal feature of the fourteenth and fifteenth centu- 
ries, there were not wanting a few historical and theological 
writers, who require a short notice from their great importance 
in the history of mediaeval civilization; as always, the least 
meritorious of them are those chroniclers who have thrown 
their communications respecting earlier or contemporaneous 
e vents into a rhymed form. 

1. One of these is a Swiss, called Halbsuter of Lucerne. 



SECOND PEEIOD — THE MEISTEESANGEE. 



61 



He has left a versified account of the battle of Sempach, in 
which he had taken part. This battle was gained by the 
Swiss, in 1386, o^er Leopold, Duke of Austria, who wished 
to annex several of their cantons to his family possessions. 

2. Another is Mklas von Weyl, also a native of Switzerland, 
but mostly residing in Bavaria and "Wiirtemberg. He em- 
ployed himself chiefly in German versions of Italian novels, as 
well as of old Latin chronicles. Very interesting is his ac- 
count of the Council of Constance in 1416, and of the martyr- 
dom of Jerome of Prague, the disciple of Huss. 

3. A very singular production is Theuerdank, a partly 
historical, partly allegorical, chronicle of the end of the fif- 
teenth century. It has for its reputed author no less a per- 
sonage than the Emperor Maximilian. If genuine, this poem 
does little credit to the poetic endowments of the Habsburg 
family. It describes, under fictitious names, how the em- 
peror, or Theuerdank, went to woo the wealthy heiress of 
Burgundy, Mary, daughter of Charles the Eash, here called 
the Lady Ehrenreich. Before his arrival at the Burgundian 
Court he has to encounter three foes — Youthful Giddiness, 
Lover's Mishap, and the Envy of his Eivals ; but the imperial 
suitor slays all the three allegorical enemies, and consequently 
carries off the lady and her dowry. The conception and the 
verse seldom rise above mediocrity. Some attribute its author- 
ship to the emperor's chaplain and secretary, Pfinzing. 

Another allegorical and unfinished chronicle, entitled ""Weiss- 
konig," is said to have come from the pen of the same prince; 
it relates the events of his and his father's reign, and is rhymed, 
like the preceding. 

4, Two prose chronicles, which originated in Strasburg, — the 
one about 1360, the other about 1400, — give at least more 
authentic history. The earlier of the two is the work of 
Fritsche Closener, a vicar and precentor of the cathedral in 
I tat city ; it contains a history of Strasburg, and dwells espe- 

ally on the feuds in which the citizens were then engaged 

Gt 



62 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



with their bishop. The other is by Jacob Twinger, and was 
built on Closener's work ; it embraces the history of the whole 
of Alsatia, and relates, among other matters, how the Flagel- 
lant friars used then to go about, scourging themselves, and 
displaying their dreary asceticism, to the disgust of the popu- 
lation. 

5. The Limburg chronicle is perhaps the most important of 
several minor works of a similar description, all referring to 
local events. It goes down to 1398, and was composed by 
the town- clerk of Limburg, Tilemann by name. 

The Mystics. — Towards the end of the middle ages a wide- 
spread party of malecontents existed in the German Church, 
who wished to reform its abuses, and to revive religion among 
the people. The writers of this school go usually by the name 
of Mystics, from the alleged obscurity of their style and views. 
They may be regarded as the direct precursors of the Refor- 
mation, and most of them belonged to the Dominican order, 
which then acted a very different part from that which it played 
in Luther's time. The Mystics were eminent preachers, as well 
as pious theologians. The founder of their school was Eckhart, 
who lived in Cologne, and died in 1329. Pope John XXII. 
condemned his doctrines as heretical. A second was Suso, a 
Cologne friar somewhat later than Eckhart ; but John Tauler, 
who died in 1361, and Geiler von Kaisersberg, who died in 
1510, are the most distinguished for pulpit eloquence. The 
latter lived and preached in Strasburg, where he knew the 
syndic Brandt, and borrowed from his " Ship of Eools" some 
suggestions for his moral discourses. 



THTRD PEEIOD THE LEAENED EE A. 



Go 



CHAPTEE VI. 

THIRD PERIOD. — THE LEARNED ERA (1534-1760). 

Character of this Period— -We now come to the age of the 
Eeformation, the age which fixed the present dialect of Ger- 
many, and placed literature in the hands of scholars and pro- 
fessors. It has been shown in the three preceding chapters, 
that whichever of the three estates at any time took the lead 
in civilization had also the precedence in poetry. Thus the 
clergy first gave birth to the monastic literature; then the 
knights, to chivalrous minstrelsy ; and, lastly, the third estate, 
or the burghers, to the artisan poetry. Prom this it is evident 
that at the outbreak of the Eeformation the cities and their 
inhabitants were in possession of the literary supremacy. The 
sixteenth century effected in this respect no absolute change ; 
only, within the third estate, a subdivision had lately arisen, 
through the foundation of the universities ; and it is to this, 
that is, to the learned portion of the citizens, that the ascen- 
dancy was now transferred. The subsequent poets and prose 
writers are all men with academic degrees — doctors or pro- 
fessors, divines or scholars, physicians or lawyers. Apart from 
those foci of the national intellect, the universities, authorship 
is not to be met with ; and in these exclusively resides hence- 
forth the activity of the German mind. The first of the insti- 
tutions which impart its new character to the following era 
was that of Prague, founded, in 1348, by Charles IY. Soon 
Yienna followed ; and then, in rapid succession, Heidelberg, 
Cologne, Erfurt, Leipzig, Wiirzburg, Eostock, Easel, Tubin- 
gen, Mayence, and last, not least, Wittenberg, founded in 
1502. Already the first of these, Prague, had shown whither 
complete freedom of teaching, and total emancipation from 
clerical and state inspection, was likely to lead these learned 
bodies. Huss and his disciple Jerome had openly questioned 



64 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



a part of the doctrinal system of the Church. But the Utra- 
quistic* movement had not spread beyond Bohemia and Mo- 
ravia. Germany had not caught the contagion of the Slavo- 
nians in Austria; because in 1409 all the Teutonic students 
had left Prague for Leipzig, to avoid further collisions between 
the two nationalities. But the German academies were certainly 
not behind Prague in either daring or spirit of inquiry. The 
storm was gathering for a century, until the clouds burst in 
Wittenberg. Here a learned disputation — a mere professorial 
squabble — broke out in 1617, which assumed the huge pro- 
portions of an European question, when Dr. Martin Luther, 
a professor of Wittenberg University, burnt the papal bulls and 
the canon law, before the gates of the town, amidst a crowd 
of students and colleagues. In the two following years the 
temporary vacancy on the imperial throne, and the Diet of 
Worms, convoked by the new emperor, Charles Y.. only ag- 
gravated the critical nature of the situation; and ere long 
throughout the north-western and central portions of Europe, 
wherever Teutonic or semi- Teutonic nations dwelt, the Befor- 
mation was hailed with one burst of applause. The progress 
of this movement concerns us here less than its effects on litera- 
ture. The consequences by which the Keformation was at- 
tended proved most disastrous to Germany, which had to pay 
very dearly for the honour of having inaugurated this great 
moral cause. She became the battle-field of Protestantism. 
Her soil was overrun by foreign invaders, her sons split up in 
one larger, and one smaller camp ; her prosperity was trodden 
under foot, her population reduced to less than one-half of 
what it had been. At the end of a war unparalleled in the 
history of mankind, either in length or in atrocity, Germany 
found herself in possession of religious liberty, indeed, because 
the game was drawn after all, but with her towns anduniver- 

* So called because the Hussites asserted the right of the laity to take 
the sacrament in both kinds. 



THTKD PEKIOD THE LEAENED EEA. 



65 



sities well nigh deserted, and with education brought down to 
the level of the barbarous ages. 

The circumstances just related not merely impeded, but ut- 
terly frustrated the literary efforts of Germany. It becomes, 
therefore, the duty of the historian of this era to report on an 
age barren in ideas, broken in spirit, sterile in productions, 
and gazing abroad for models as encouragements to compo- 
sition. The glorious example set by Luther, in both poetry 
and prose, was not followed up. The few succeeding authors 
showed neither his genius nor his patriotism ; the majority 
totally disregarded the language of the people, and employed 
Latin as the medium of their erudite communications. Men 
such as Pufendorf the jurist, and Leibnitz the philosopher, 
wrote in Latin, or else in French, rather than in German. The 
silence of this period is interrupted only by the sneers of 
Fischart, and the hymn-poetry of the Lutheran divines ; for 
in her agony Germany seemed, more than at other times, dis- 
posed to pray. Besides these, the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries scarcely exhibit a single publication of any impor- 
tance. Towards the end of the latter century, however, some 
faint glimmerings of an approaching dawn become visible, 
when four schools of criticism proclaim new rules of taste. 
Germany then slowly recovers from the long exhaustion to 
which the religious wars had doomed her. Perceiving that 
meanwhile England and France have amassed literary trea- 
sures far surpassing her own, she hesitates for a moment in the 
choice of her models. Opitz, and subsequently Gottsched, re- 
commend the French school, while Bodmer and his followers 
victoriously point to England as a more genial ally for German 
authors. At length Germany takes her choice, and becomes 
herself again, when the classical era dawns in 1760. 

Influence of Luther. — To few men has it been given to in- 
fluence so powerfully the moral condition of their countrymen, 
as Luther has influenced that of his compatriots. In him 
Germany recognises not only the founder of her Protestantism . 

o 2 



GERMAN LITERATURE . 



but also the father of her literature and her language. It was 
Luther who made the Upper-Saxon dialect of Meissen, Eisen- 
ach, and the neighbourhood the only written and spoken lan- 
guage of the country. Hence, therefore, dates Neu-Hoch- 
Deutsch, or the modern High-German dialect. This he 
achieved by translating into that dialect the Old and New 
Testament, which work he began in the Castle of Wartburg, 
in 1521, but completed only in the year 1534. As the sacred 
volume, according to Luther's version, was more commonly 
read all over the land than any other printed book, it had the 
effect of popularizing Luther's native dialect, which henceforth 
superseded every other form of speech existing at the time ; 
but Luther distinguished himself also as a preacher, as a theo- 
logical pamphleteer, and as a hymn- writer. Among his con- 
troversial productions, his tract on "The Babylonian Captivity 
of the Church," and among his discourses his "Addresses to 
the Christian Nobles of Germany," attained an extraordinary 
degree of celebrity. Of his hymns none has been more fre- 
quently repeated than the so-called Reformation Hymn, of 
which Luther composed both text and music. It is difficult 
to say which deserves the high est admiration, the words or the 
melody. It begins with the line — " Eine feste Burg ist unser 
Gott;" and its principal excellence* consists in the powerful 
expression which it gives to the Christian's unshaken confi- 
dence in the aid of Providence. Its sublime language sounds 
like an epilogue on the Eeformer's life. We think, on reading 
it, we see him walking through the streets of Worms, or hear 
him defying Emperor and Pope, while taking his stand on the 
goodness of his cause. It is, indeed, a trait of character quite 
as much as a hymn. 

Sacred Poetry. — The labours of the great Reformer were not 
seconded by others, so that the impulse which he gave to both 
poetry and prose died away in the political discouragement of 
his partisans. Neither the pamphlets of the brave knight 
whom wc shall mention shortly, nor the hymns of Luther's 



THIED PEEIOD THE LEABNED EEA. 



67 



friends, could produce anything even distantly comparable to the 
effect of his own performances. After Luther, literature simply 
stands still. We have to go to the end of the Thirty Years' 
"War, about 1648, to meet again some really noteworthy hymn- 
writers. Those choral odes which have been sung in the Pro- 
testant churches of Germany for the last two hundred years 
owe their origin almost entirely to the period of the religious 
struggle, or else to the generation immediately following it. 
At that time, we may suppose, £he devotional feelings of the 
population were excited to a more than usual degree, and to 
this circumstance alone we must attribute the fact that be- 
tween 1600 and 1700 so little was written or versified, except 
what bore directly on religion. Among the hymns of this 
age there are some most sublime and most finished composi- 
tions. None excel in beauty those of the pious Paul Gerhard. 

1. Simon Dach (1605-1659) was born at Kernel, in East 
Prussia, and became a Professor at the University of Konigs- 
berg. Frederick William, the Great Elector, presented Dach 
with an estate, in token of his great esteem for his merits. 
Besides composing a number of Protestant hymns, Dach en- 
couraged younger members of his University to essay moral 
and religious poetry. The disciples whom he thus collected 
around himself are sometimes dignified by the title of the 
Konigsberg School. They adopted views and practices re- 
sembling in all respects those of Opitz, from whom his con- 
temporary, Dach, borrowed most of his precepts on compo- 
sition. 

2. Paul Elemming (1609-1640) was a Saxon by birth, and 
educated at Meissen and Leipzig, where he obtained the di- 
ploma of M. D. The events of the war compelled him to fly 
to Holstein, where the reigning duke took him into his service, 
and sent him abroad on foreign embassies, first to Russia, then 
to Persia. During these travels Elemming found consolation 
in composing sacred hymns, some of them of great merit, and 



08 



GERMAN LITEEA TEBE . 



mostly adhering, like those of Dach, to the rules of the critic 
Opitz. Flemming died in Hamburgh at an early age, having 
but lately returned from the far East. 

3. Paul Gerhard (1606-1676) is, without any doubt, the 
greatest hymn- writer whom Germany has produced. He was 
a Saxon by birth, and a man of exemplary piety and integrity. 
He went to Brandenburg, and obtained a living with an ex- 
tensive parish in Berlin. Unfortunately the disputes of the 
Calvinistic and Lutheran parties divided his co-religionists into 
two hostile sections ; and as the Great Elector, by an edict, 
proscribed Lutheranism, and enforced Calvinism among his 
clergy, Paul Gerhard resigned his living, and quitted the elec- 
toral dominions for his native Saxony, where he died as pastor 
of the village of Liibben. Eew men whose lot it has been to 
direct the devotions of their fellow-men have thrown into 
their labours greater earnestness and dignity of feeling than 
this Lutheran pastor. He has created for himself a lasting 
memorial in some of the best hymns of the Protestant Church 
in Germany. Among the chants which he has left we will 
mention the first lines of but three : — " Wach auf, mein Herz, 
nnd singe;" " Nun ruhen alle Walder;" and " Befiehl du 
deine Wege." His manner is collected, and yet cheerful; 
plaintive, and yet never desponding; simple, above all, and 
truly childlike. He has none of Luther's impatient vehemence ; 
but he surpasses him in imagination, as well as in brevity of 
diction. 

4. Friedrich Spee (1592-1635) was the only Roman Catho- 
lic who essayed religious or semi-religious poetry. In general 
we may observe that the Eomanist portions of the country 
have contributed next to nothing to the literature of Germany. 
This surprising fact cannot entirely be owing to the numerical 
superiority of the Protestants, which is not decided enough to 
explain the literary monopoly which they have been allowed 
to establish. The phenomenon must be chiefly attributed to the 



THIED PEETOD THE LEAENED EE A. 



69 



fact that education and general culture remained at a lower ebb 
in the Bomanist districts than they were among the Eeformed. 
P. Spee is, however, one of the few exceptions to the rule. His 
sacred poetry had not the practical significance of the Protes- 
tant hymns, which were one and all composed for the use of 
the communities within which they had arisen, and served to 
guide their devotions. On the contrary, Spee's performance, 
te Trutz-Nachtigall," shows by its title, as well as by its con- 
tents, that it was the offspring of poetical dilettantism. The 
name implies that its author wished to vie with the nightin- 
gale in the sweetness of his tones. It owes its religious cha- 
racter merely to the circumstance that the poet belonged to a 
monastic order, namely, that of the Jesuits, and therefore in- 
terspersed his descriptions of nature and his touches of pastoral 
life with a variety of religious reflections. The latter often 
exhibit the morbid despair of the monk, who laments his un- 
natural seclusion from society and nature, and hence there is in 
them a peculiar admixture of sadness and dissatisfaction. Spee 
was a truly humane representative of his order. He lived on 
the Ehine, and used to act as a father confessor to condemned 
criminals. It was one of his merits to have denounced in open 
and manly terms the abominable practice of burning women 
on the charge of witchcraft. He said his hair had grown grey 
with grief, as he had seen so many unfortunate women making 
with him their last journey to the stake, and then suffering 
innocently; for he felt sure that not one of them had ever 
committed the crimes imputed to her. 

5. We will conclude the list of hymn- writers with Andreas 
Gryphius (1616-1664), a native of Glogau, in Silesia, and a 
friend of Opitz, founder of the first Silesian School. He 
travelled much, and graduated at Ley den, in Holland. Bat 
returning at length to Glogau, he became a magistrate there, 
and wrote numerous sacred pieces, as well as some dramas, 
odes, and epigrams, all of which are now totally forgotten. 

"With Gryphius hymn-poetry began to decay : though Hage- 



70 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



dorn and Gellert in the next century tried to revive the sacred 
ode, they could not find again the earnest and sublime tone 
which had distinguished a Hemming and a Gerhard. 

Satires, Fables, and Moral Stories. — Besides sacred poetry, 
there are no very noteworthy writings which have come down 
to us from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. As already 
stated, this barrenness of the era under discussion is due to 
the dismal state of politics on one hand, and to the prevalent 
use of Latin on the other. The University-men, into whose 
hands literature had fallen, would not condescend to use the 
vernacular dialect. They handled every public question in a 
learned manner, and learning could not speak otherwise than 
in Latin. Except in cases when a pastor was preaching, 
praying, or chanting before his congregation, there was no oc- 
casion for the literati of the age to hold any intercourse with 
the masses of the unlearned. Hot more than two or three 
descriptions of popular writings were exempt from the scho- 
lastic disguise— pamphlets, fables, satires, and popular stories. 
These required to be told in the vulgar language, to make them 
intelligible to the people for whom they were intended. Still 
we may wonder that the conception of even such writings 
should have arisen in the heads of the doctors and pastors who 
composed them. These authors themselves were fully aware 
of this anomaly. They apologized duly in their prefaces for 
the infraction of the rules of their order, and begged to excuse 
the plebeian dialect in which they had chosen to descant on a 
plebeian theme. Some, however, went considerably further. 
They ridiculed or else lamented the exotic erudition and arti- 
ficial book-learning that weighed down the language of the 
people, and sighed for the day when Germans would again 
dare to write in German, and throw off the unworthy yoke 
which the scholasticism of an earlier age had imposed on the 
education and literature of their nation. This latter feeling, 
however, could not gain strength before the middle of the 
eighteenth century, when the great critical writers had paved 



THIRD PERIOD THE LEARNED ERA. 



71 



the way for an independent and national style of writing ; and 
it becomes our first duty to notice those few and isolated at- 
tempts at secular poetry and satirical prose, which intervened 
before that period. 

1. Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523), a brave but unfortunate 
Franconian knight, deserves mention as an eminent pamphle- 
teer of the Reformation age. He had studied the classical lan- 
guages at Fulda, Cologne, and Frankfurt, and had at an early 
age joined the party of Reuchlin, Agricola, and Erasmus of 
Rotterdam. Hutten was one of the principal authors of the 
famous party manifesto, " Epistolse Obscurorum Yirorum," 
which defended the study of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew against 
the bigoted denunciations of Hoogstraten and other Cologne 
zealots. On the termination of his academic life Hutten 
served under the Emperor Maximilian, during his campaign in 
Italy, in the year 1509; but returned, like most of his bre- 
thren in arms, owing to the outbreak of a disease which ra- 
vaged the German camp. He subsequently took an active 
part with Sickingen and Gotz in opposing a noble brigand, 
Duke Ulrich of "Wiirtemberg, who had revived the old preda- 
tory practices of mediaeval knighthood. When the Eeforma- 
tion broke out, Hutten openly and unreservedly declared him- 
self its advocate. In defence of the cause of Luther he 
composed several pamphlets in German, the principal of which 
was his "Kiagrede," or " Complaint," against papal power in 
Germany. The daring displayed in these publications, and 
also in his speeches, drew upon him the resentment of the ec- 
clesiastical party. Hutten was compelled to fly, and concealed 
himself at first with his friend Sickingen, on whose subsequent 
death he sought refuge in Switzerland. Here he stayed some 
time, on the island in the Lake of Zurich, where he was not 
further molested by his persecutors. But shortly after, in 1 523, 
he breathed his last, while still in the prime of manhood. His 
death was mourned by the whole Protestant party. Few men 
have stood up more perseveringly for truth and justice than 



72 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



this noble knight, whose character and life have attracted the 
admiration of succeeding generations. His last biographer 
was David Strauss. 

2. J. F. Fischart (1525-1591), of Mayence, a wit and sati- 
rist, continued the Lutheran controversy against the papal 
party. He was a lawyer by profession ; and having resided 
temporarily at Strasburg, Speyer, and Frankfort, became at 
last burgomaster in Forbach. His principal work is a German 
imitation of Babelais' life of Gargantua and his son Panta- 
gruel, the whimsical princes of Chinon. The work of Eabelais 
had been published in France about 1535, that of Fischart ap- 
peared forty years after. Even the original contains reflec- 
tions on the depraved state of the Church and the monastic 
orders ; but in the paraphrase of Fischart these received a 
tinge of increased acrimony. Fischart also became the author 
of a humorous poem entitled "Flohhatz," or, " The Chase of 
the Fleas, "—a satire on upstarts, and on the mistaken desire of 
rising beyond one's proper station. A third story of Fischar 
was his " Lucky Ship," which narrated an incident of the 
famine of 1576, when a party of Zurich riflemen brought in 
one day a large kettle full of millet down the Ehine to a Stras- 
burg rifle-match, and made such excellent use of oar and sail 
as to deliver their broth still hot into the hands of the starving 
inhabitants of the latter city. There are many other pamph- 
lets of Fischart, levelled at Jesuits, Dominicans, prelates, and 
pontiffs. 

4. Eurkhard Waldis (1500-1556), and Georg Eollenhager 
(1542-1556), are two fabulists of the sixteenth century. "Wal- 
dis was a Hessian, who at one time had lived in a Livonian 
monastery ; but afterwards he joined the Eeformers, and died 
as a parson in Abterode. He edited an iEsop, a collection of 
about 400 fables, some few of which are of his own invention. 
His style is merry and droll, partaking more of the anecdote 
than of severe didactic poetry. Eollenhagen was head-master • 
of a school in Madgeburg, and paraphrased in his " Frosch- 



THIRD PERIOD THE LEARNED ERA. 



78 



Mauseler," the " Batracho-myo-machia" of Homer. His mice 
and frogs are intelligent creatures. They discourse on Church 
and State, Luther and the Pope, St. Paul and St. Peter. At 
length they pass on from controversy to blows ; and the larger 
or smaller number of bloody noses decides the strength or 
weakness of their theological arguments. The author parodied 
the Germans of his time very felicitously in this satire. 

5. Two popular stories here claim our attention, which were 
probably current at a much earlier period, but first committed 
to writing at this time. These are the stories of Eulenspiegel 
and of Paust. "What the term Eulenspiegel meant, or the name 
of Till, usually coupled with it, is not quite certain. In the 
editions of his story an owl (eule) sitting before a mirror (spie- 
gel) is usually depicted on the title-page ; but this is evidently 
an invention subsequent to the name itself. The other name, 
Till, belonged to an individual who is said to have lived about 
1350. His tomb is shown at Mollen, in Mecklenburg, where a 
tree grew over his grave, and where since his time every arti- 
san who passes by is expected to strike a nail into the afore- 
said tree. The name Eulenspiegel is intimately connected with 
the notion of roguery, as appears from the fact that this appel- 
lative is commonly applied in Germany as an equivalent for 
a trickster. The Prench have borrowed the same term, it 
would appear ; for we are probably not mistaken in consider- 
ing this as the derivation of espiegle. The anonymous books 
referring to this worthy confirm this idea. They date from 
time immemorial, and arose probably in the Middle Ages. 
Their subject is the sage speeches, the practical jokes, the ex- 
periences, and the pranks of a travelling journeyman. It is a 
collection of Possen or Schwanke, such as we described in 
page 56, in speaking of the Meistersanger. 

The legend of Dr. Paustus was first printed about 1587; it 
also arose in the Middle Ages. The hero of this story is an 
alchymist, or a learned friar, called Paust. A person of that 
name actually lived at Kundlirigen, in Swabia, where he died 

H 



74 



GERMAN LITEE ATUEE . 



in 1540 ; he had the reputation of being a magician, and it was 
said he kept company with the devil, who visited him in the 
external shape of a black poodle dog. Thus they appeared 
once to a number of German students, whose liquor they turned 
into fire, and whose orgies they diversified on that occasion 
by other specimens of supernatural art. "We need scarcely re- 
mind the reader that the English tragedian Marlowe was the 
first to dramatize this story from a version which had been 
printed in London, and that recently Gothe appropriated the 
same tale. 

6. J. M. Moscherosch (1601-1669) was a Hessian, whose 
ancestors had sprung from Spanish settlers, whence also his 
Spanish name; he studied law, and became burgomaster in 
Xrichingen. The book which entitles him to a place in litera- 
ture is his collection of satires, partly rhymed, partly in prose, 
under the fictitious name of Philander von Sittenwald. They 
were written during the thirty years' war, and give us an in- 
sight into the state of society then prevailing. Moscherosch 
directed his satire especially against the pedantry of the upper 
classes, and the mock wisdom which spurned the language of 
the people to write and speak nothing but Latin, or even 
French. He does not think the whip too hard a means of 
chastising the academic jackanapes who held possession of the 
universities of his day. 

7. " Simplicissimus" is the name of a prose novel which ap- 
peared in 1669, and describes scenes of the great war, which 
had then long concluded. The author was formerly unknown, 
until lately his name was discovered to be Grimmelshausen. 
He has told his autobiography in an interesting and witty 
manner, though its principal interest is the light it throws on 
the history of that fearful age. The hero is the son of a pea- 
sant in Spessart Forest, but is dragged from his retreat by the 
Swedes, who break in upon that lonely spot, to be succeeded 
by other swarms of plunderers, more brutal and violent than 
the first. For a time he finds a refuge with a hermit, who 



THIRD PERIOD THE LEARNED ERA. 75 

educates him ; but soon he is carried off thence again, and 
compelled to do military service. By cunning and cleverness 
he is enabled to make a rich marriage, and to push his fortunes 
in the midst of the universal storm. But soon a reverse blasts 
his prosperity. His marriage turns out badly; his money is 
taken from him ; disease and despair bring him to the verge 
of death, and at last he finds himself a prisoner of war among 
the Swedes again. After many more adventures he becomes a 
hermit, and lives to see the war end, when a more peaceful 
generation allows him to ponder in solitude over the frightful 
scenes of the past. 

Critical Writers — Four Schools of Poetic Art. — The resus- 
citation of German poetry, after the storms of the religious wars, 
was to a great extent due to the exertions of several critical 
writers, who made it their object to come with their contem- 
poraries to some agreement on the form as well as on the 
spirit of poetic composition. As they had each their adherents, 
either in or near their birth-place, they are usually counted as 
so many founders of schools. Thus the first Silesian School 
originated in Liegnitz, a town of Silesia, under the auspices 
of Opitz, about 1 625. The second Silesian School arose in Br es- 
lau, the capital of the same province about the year 1660; 
its heads were Hoffmanns waldau and Lohenstein. The third 
was the Saxon School of Gottsched, in Leipzig, who flourished 
about 1730. And the last was the Zurich or the Swiss School 
of Bodmer, about 1740. We may in general observe that the 
third resembled in tendency the first, as the fourth resembled 
the second. 

1. Martin Opitz (1597-1639) proposed to do for the literature 
of Germany the same thing which Malherbe had just then done 
for that of France — namely, to fix the metrical form of poetry, 
and to restrict it to the imitation of the antique in its matter. 
He was a Silesian by birth, and resided principally at Liegnitz. 
Here he connected himself with several German noblemen, and 
attained the character of a bel-esprit and a critic. Towards 



76 



GEEMAN LITEEATTJBE . 



the end of his life he was induced to go to Poland, as a sove- 
reign of that kingdom had offered him the post of private secre- 
tary. Shortly after he was infected with the plague by an 
unfortunate beggar, to whom he had given alms, and died in 
consequence. In the earlier part of his life Opitzhad published 
some Latin treatises, such as " Aristarchus," and " De Prosodia 
Germanica," in which he proposed new and better principles 
of versification than those hitherto in vogue. The earlier 
poets had been no scholars, and had but loose notions on 
rhyme and metre. Doggrel verse, faulty rhymes, and want of 
rhythm had disfigured their productions ; and the Meister- 
sanger especially, notwithstanding the injunctions of their 
' ( Tabulatur," had carried their carelessness to a shocking degree 
of poetic license. To these irregularities in the composition of 
verse Opitz endeavoured to put an end, by applying to German 
some of the metrical principles of Scaliger and Yida, two earlier 
writers on classical metres. Among other points, Opitz clearly 
enunciated the law of poetic rhythm in German. It differs 
from Latin and Greek rhythm, because German permits no 
definite test of syllabic quantity, and does but insufficiently 
distinguish between long and short vowels. Accent supplies 
in German poetry the want of quantity. Opitz, therefore, 
laid down the principle that every accented or radical syllable 
should be equivalent to a long one, and that every unaccented or 
fiexional syllable should be considered short. He consequently 
insisted on a more regular change of accented and unaccented 
syllables, and forbade putting an iambus in a trochaic rhythm, 
or a dactyl in an anapaestic one. In short, he proscribed any 
infraction of the metrical harmony of verse. In addition to 
his rules on versification, Opitz also enjoined greater discrimi- 
nation in the choice of expressions and subjects. He laid 
down that poetry before all should instruct, and that its plea- 
surable design should be subordinate to its moral purpose. 
Sentiment and imagination he would not banish altogether ; 
but he bade his countrymen take care that these should never 



THIRD PERIOD— THE LEARNED ERA. 



77 



get the mastery over good sense and sober reason. Finally, he 
advised his friends to imitate the classical authors of Greece 
and Rome, and among modern verse-writers the Prench, with 
their Alexandrine metre. This latter verse was a favourite 
with Opitz, and, to add example to rule, he wrote a Lutheran 
Church hymn in Alexandrines. Others of his poems, such as 
that on the God of War, and that on Mount Yesuvius, are in 
shorter iambic verse. He also translated the " Antigone" of So- 
phocles, and some Italian dramas (the Trench tragedians only 
came after his time) ; and in all these writings he observed the 
same care and strictness which he enforced by his precepts. 
The innovations of Opitz were endorsed by the majority of his 
contemporaries. The Protestant hymn writers, both those of 
Saxony and those of Konigsberg, applauded his maxims, and 
many others followed in his track. 

2. As, however, the sober critic just spoken of sometimes 
exaggerated his principles, another school of Silesian critics, 
called the second Silesians, started views directly opposite to 
those of Opitz. Hoffmann of Hoffmanns waldau, a native of 
Breslau (1618-1669), Lohenstein (1635-1683), and F. von 
Logau (1604-1655), also of Breslau, disputed not so much the 
metrical reforms of Opitz, as his proscription of imagination, 
and his eulogies on prosaic and common-place poetry. They 
might have done some good had they gone no further ; but, un- 
fortunately, these opposition critics made some wretched at- 
tempts at fanciful and sentimental poetry according to their 
own taste. Being all men of mediocre abilities, they adopted 
a habit of stringing a great many epithets and metaphors to- 
gether in their verses, and passing them off for better poetry. 
Their pathos became perfectly bombastic, their fanciful de- 
scriptions tedious, and their epigrammatic mannerism utterly 
ridiculous. In JSTiirnberg, on the Pegnitz, a school of pastoral 
poets, often called the Shepherds of the Pegnitz, adopted a 
very similar style; but their descriptions of Arcadian life soon 



78 



GERMAN LITETtATUBE. 



fell into the same contempt as the other writings of the second 
Silesian School. 

3. Under such circumstances it cannot surprise us to find, 
in the next century, J. G. Gottsched (1700-1766), a native of 
East Prussia, and Professor of Eloquence in Leipzig, reviving 
the principles of Opitz, and founding the Saxon School, which 
is only a more recent edition of the first Silesian. Gottsched' s 
principal treatise is his " Kritische Drichtkunst," or Critical 
Art of Poetry, published in 1729. He also edited a periodical 
in Leipzig, which reviewed home and foreign literature ac- 
cording to his views. He first applied the new rules of taste 
to a novel department, which Opitz had but slightly touched 
on, namely, the German stage. Gottsched induced the theatres 
of Leipzig and other towns to suppress the low buffoonery 
which had been in possession of the boards since the times 
of Hans Sachs- He expelled the " Hanswurst," or the Ger- 
man harlequin. In lieu thereof he proposed to exhibit the 
stern tragic Muse, in the manner of Racine. At that time 
the Erench poets had attracted universal attention in Europe ; 
and as Erench manners and the Erench language had generally 
become such favourites in better society, Gottsched acknow- 
ledged the indubitable superiority which Erance then pos- 
sessed, by advising his countrymen to abide by the principles 
of Boileau, which were also those of Horace. With this view r 
he translated Corneille and Racine into German, and com- 
posed a tragedy in the pseudo-classical or the Erench style, 
on the death of Cato. Addison's drama, which is but another 
specimen of the same tendency in dramatic poetry, was Gott- 
sched' s model ; and it must be admitted that he has all the 
frigidity of his English original, without any of his invention. 
The subject itself disqualified his drama for success, as a rea- 
soning philosopher can never be a fit hero for a tragedy. The 
earlier English dramatists were at that time but little appre- 
ciated in either Germany or England, and it remained for the 



THIRD PERIOD THE LEARNED ERA. 



79 



age of a Lessing and a Schlegel to do more justice to the 
genius of Shakspeare. 

4. A Zurich Professor, Bodmer, was the first to oppose 
Gottsched, in 1740. He headed the Swiss School of criticism. 
"What offended him and his friends, Breitinger and yon Haller, 
was the amount of dry rule, and the exclusive appeal to the 
understanding in matters of art. He pleaded once more for 
the imagination, as the true soul of poetry ; he moreover held 
up the ancient Minnesanger. and among moderns Milton, as 
far better models of composition than the French. The lite- 
rary war which now broke out between him and Gottsched 
lasted nearly twenty years, and assumed occasionally a bitter 
aspect in most of the German journals of the time. It ended 
in the defeat and unpopularity of Gottsched. One main 
reason why the latter lost his prestige as a critic was the ex- 
cessive insolence with which he criticized the labours of junior 
men, such as Klop stock and "Wieland, while Bodmer knew 
how to enlist on his side all the rising talent of Germany. 
The latter edited the Mbelungenlied, and translated " Paradise 
Lost. 7 ' "When Bodmer died, in 1783, he had the satisfaction of 
seeing his principles of taste universally accepted. 

Disciples of Gottsched.— ~Bef ore we take leave of this period, 
we have to notice a few stray writers, most of them disciples 
of Gottsched, who preceded the dawn of the classical era. 
The greatest critic of the eighteenth century had assembled 
around himself, in Leipzig, a large number of followers, who 
zealously spread his critical views. They joined, in 1742, in 
editing a magazine at Bremen, called "Bremische Beitrage," 
which for a time became a leading journal in Germany. The 
most remarkable among its collaborators were Klopstock 
and Gellert. Their president was called Gartner ; others, 
such as Schlegel, father of the two Schlegels in the next era, 
Hagedorn, Ebert, Gleim, and Eabener, were no contemptible 
writers. Eabener was a satirist ; Gleim, with his friend TJz, 
imitated Anacreon; the others wrote lyrics of one kind or 



80 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



another. C. F. Gellert (1715-1 769) deserves especial mention, 
as the principal modern fabulist of Germany. He was the 
son of a clergyman, and became, like Gottsched, a professor 
at Leipzig, where he rendered himself universally liked and 
respected by his gentle, unassuming manner, and by his un- 
blemished integrity. His style as a fabulist resembles rather 
that of Gay than that of Lafontaine ; it is clear and simple 
almost to excess. He has not the wit and drollery of the 
French poet ; he preserves less felicitously the poetic illusion 
which disguises the moral of the fable under the garb of the 
actions of animals ; still, he will be read with pleasure by 
all who appreciate lucid and easy German ; in his sacred poetry 
also Gellert displa3 r s the same contemplative wisdom, and 
the same absence of poetic inspiration, which characterize his 
fables. Since Gellert' s time an author of the name of Lichtwer 
(1719-1783), and more recently Pfeffel, who died in 1809, 
have written fables. These, along with Lessing and Gothe, 
who have also occasionally indulged in this sort of composition, 
complete the list of the modern fabulists of Germany. 



FOURTH PERIOD THE CLASSICAL ERA. 



81 



CHAPTER VII. 

FOURTH PERIOD— THE CLASSICAL ERA (1760-1805). 

Character of this Period. — As the causes which, bring the 
literature of a country to full maturity admit only to a certain 
extent of elucidation, it would be impossible to adduce con- 
vincing proofs that that of Germany could not have attained 
its culminating point some two or three hundred years earlier 
than it actually did. "We can, nevertheless, point to several 
circumstances which prepared the dawn of the classical era, 
and corresponded to the conditions which have usually either 
preceded or accompanied similar epochs in other countries. 
Erst of all, the language had now been fixed, and the most 
general laws of both poetic and prose composition were either 
then or shortly after agreed upon. Besides, after 1763, com- 
parative peace and prosperity reigned in the land, the wounds 
inflicted by the religious wars having gradually healed. More- 
over, education was in a flourishing state, and intelligence 
became at once more enlightened and more patriotic than before. 
In addition to these causes, a certain amount of lustre was at 
that time shed on the North Germans, by the rise of the Prus- 
sian monarchy and the victories of Frederick the Great. Finally, 
towards the end of the classical period princely patronage was 
extended to literary genius, and contributed both to elicit and 
to encourage its efforts, although at the same time we must con- 
fess that this patronage not only came far later than it ought to 
have done, but also was totally withheld by those very courts 
whose natural duty it would have been to afford their support. 

The brightest period of German literature was not ushered 
in by any political revulsion, nor by any great social change, 
similar to those mentioned in the previous periods, and such as 
we shall mention again in the next. After the seven years' war 
there was a lull, and a comparative calm, in the affairs of Ger- 



82 



GERMAN LITERATURE . 



many. Hence the classical era introduced no radical change 
in the spirit of composition ; neither did it start a new class of 
literati. It was still the same portion of society from which 
the authors all sprung — namely, the middle classes ; and the 
leadership in all matters of taste still belonged to the old uni- 
versities and their alamni. The only important change was 
the gradual abandonment of the erudite air of the preceding 
era. The tendency to learned display disappeared from the 
language and from the books. Neither the imitation of the 
antique nor that of foreign and modern authors was con- 
tinued with the same slavish inferiority as heretofore. This 
salutary change was entirely due to the judgment of the uni- 
versity professors themselves. Already, about 1745, "Wolf, the 
disciple of Leibnitz, had set in Halle the first example of dis- 
carding Latin from manuals and lectures. Since then German 
gradually became the routine language of academic teaching. 
Subsequently three great writers, — Lessing, Klopstock,and~\Vie- 
land, — did a great deal to restore the national dialect to its due 
rank ; they first showed by tangible specimens the possibility 
of creating a German epic, a German drama, and German 
novels. But the most decisive movement for emancipating 
the national mind from every species of artificial prescription 
occurred in the earlier part of the following decade, or between 
1770 and 1780. At that time the antipathy to learned com- 
position, and the enthusiam for " untrammelled genius," i. e. for 
free poetic inspiration, ran higher than at any period before or 
since ; it went almost to excess. One Klinger had published, 
in 1774, a drama, which bore the significant but high-sounding 
title: " Sturm und Drang," or, Storm and Pressure. What he 
exactly meant it was neither then, nor is it now, very easy to 
tell. Eut his probable intention in choosing that title was to 
hint that Parnassus was about to be stormed by men of original 
genius, such as the author ; and that a crowd of similarly dis- 
posed invaders was ready to join him in the work of dispossess- 
ing savants and pedants of their superannuated occupancy of 



FOTTKTH PEftXOD — THE CLASSICAL ERA. 



83 



the mount of the Muses.* The book which thus contested 
with the learned their lease of the literary domain was as ex - 
traordinary within as without. In a succession of wild and 
incoherent scenes, and in language remarkable for abruptness, 
bold imagery, and Ossianic paroxysms of extravagance, it de- 
scribed the deadly feuds of two Scottish clans, and their sub- 
sequent and no less wonderful reconciliation by means of in- 
termarriage. This singular production took the German public 
by surprise, and the name of " Stunner und Dranger" became 
a bye- word for the whole school of regenerators of poetry, or 
those who either supported or were supposed to support the 
movement of Klinger. His crazy drama, iudeed, fell soon into 
oblivion ; but many sober and patriotic men opened their eyes 
to the just and rational design of his publication. Too long 
had book-learning and critical rules barred up the spontaneous 
effusions of native genius, and too long had the universities in- 
culcated the imitation of Latin and Greek, or else of JFrench 
and English authors, while they never deigned to cultivate 
that kind of composition which draws its inspiration from 
within, and not from books, and which clothes natural feeling 
and poetic fancy in just such words as first suggest themselves. 
One of the first who took up Klinger' s cause was Herder ; but 
two younger men, then just coming into eminence, caught the 
general enthusiasm. The first drama of Gothe, "Gotz von Eer- 
lichingen," as well as the juvenile production of Schiller, " The 
Robbers," belongs to the period of " Sturm und Drang." Of all 
the Universities, that of Gottingen, which had but lately been 
founded, threw itself most eagerly into the movement. Here 
a society was formed about 1772, called the 'Gottingen " Dich- 
terbund" or Poets' Club, which made it its professed object to 
regenerate German poetry, by substituting the popular for the 

* " Sturm und Drang" is not well translated by " Storm and Impulse" 
(Metcalf), or " Storm and Stress" (Lewes). The figure is taken from a 
siege, and Drang refers to the pressure exercised on the defendants of the 
citadel by their besiegers. 



84 



GEKMAN UTEK ATTIRE. 



erudite style of writing ; their members, as well as their per- 
formances, will be traced further down. 

While the universities thus swarmed with literary reformers, 
those classes of society which lay beyond the academic pale re- 
mained apathetic. Neither the Austrian nor the Prussian, nor 
any of the minor princely houses, seemed to care the least 
about the progress of the fine arts among their subjects. Most 
surprising was the attitude taken by Frederick the Great. 
This king, who had done more than anybody to raise the 
prestige of Germany in diplomacy and on the field of battle, 
was at the same time a stubborn despiser of German poetry. 
He looked on the exertions of his countrymen for raising 
themselves to the character of a literary people with the 
greatest indifference, and even with contempt. "When the first 
editor of the JSTibelungen ventured to send him a copy, Frede- 
rick sent it back with this answer — " You think far too highly 
of these things. In my opinion, they are not worth a charge 
of powder. I could not tolerate such a book in my library, and 
should simply treat it as rubbish." While he thus neglected 
and spurned German poets, the conqueror of Eosbach and 
Zorndorf was speaking and writing French with Yoltaire in 
his residence at Potsdam. It is impossible to view Frederick's 
conduct in this respect otherwise than as a painful dereliction 
of his duties as a sovereign; and his fault becomes all the 
more inexcusable, when we remember that a foreign potentate, 
the King of Denmark, gave, at that time, a pension to Klop- 
stock. Hence Schiller lamented, in 1 800, fourteen years after 
Frederick's death, that the German Muse had to "turn away 
from his throne all unheeded and scorned."* 

* The lines referred to in the text are the first two stanzas of Schiller's 
poem, "Die Deutsche Muse," written in 1800 : — 

" Kein Augustisch Alter bliihte, 
Kernes Medicaer's Gute 

Lachelte der deutschen Kunst. 



FOURTH PERIOD THE CLASSICAL ERA. 



85 



But the time was at hand when a better fate should reward 
merit, even in Deutschland. The reigning family of Saxe- 
Weimar set a nobler example than Prussia, when, after 1775, 
the capital of this Grand Duchy became the centre and ren- 
dezvous of literary excellence. Four great writers are espe- 
cially associated with the court of Karl August: Wieland, who 
educated him and his brother; Gothe, who was his friend, 
his travelling companion, and his privy councillor; Herder, 
who acted as his court chaplain ; and Schiller, who spent in 
"Weimar the last six years of his life, and received a pension 
from the same patron, who, on his death, was entombed be- 
tween Schiller and Gothe, the two master-minds that adorned 
his reign. "We close this period with the death of Schiller, be- 
cause the French invasion of the year 1806, and generally the 
effects of the French Eevolution, then first felt all over Ger- 
many, ushered in another era — the revolutionary period. The 
writings of Gothe extend, it is true, much beyond the limits 
of the classical era ; but his better works were all written be- 
fore 1800, which may be considered as the zenith of German 
literature. 

The German Drama, — The most important literary pheno- 
menon of the classical era is the rise of the German drama, on 
which it will be necessary here to enter into a brief disquisi- 
tion, for the purpose of elucidating its distinctive features, es- 
pecially as compared to the English and French styles which 

Sie ward nicht gepflegt vom Kuhme, 
Sie entfaltete die Blume 
Nicht am Strahl der Fiirstengunst. 

" Von dem grossten deutschen Sonne, 
Yon des grossen Friedrich's Throne, 

Ging sie schutzlos, ungeehrt. 
Kiihmend darf 's der Deutsche sagen, 
Hoher darf das Herz ihm schlagen, 
Selbst erschuf er sich den Werth." 
I 



S6 



GrEEMABT LITEKATTJEE. 



preceded and influenced it. Since the first invention of the 
scenic art by the Greeks, both tragedy and comedy have under- 
gone many changes ; and it was therefore not likely, even 
though it had been desirable, that the German poets should 
bind themselves scrupulously by the precedents of others, in 
their views and usages, both in regard to the design and the 
execution of their dramas. The German conception of tragic 
poetry is neither the same as the French nor as the English, 
although its greater similarity to the latter is undeniable. "We 
will endeavour briefly to point out the differences. 

The French style may be characterized as the gallant and 
pseudo- classical. In France the stage usually borrowed its 
personages from antiquity; but it represented the ancients 
shorn of their manners and their religion, and draped them, 
so to speak, not in antique costumes, but in the chivalrous 
fashions and gallantry of the court of Louis XIY. "Le theatre 
Francais," says Victor Hugo, ct a force les personnages des jours 
passes a s'enluminer de notre fard, a se frotter de nos vernis." 

French tragedy also observed the rules of the three unities, in- 
sisting that all the tragic incidents should happen in the space 
of one day, and within the circuit of one town. Thus it al- 
lowed, in the construction of its denouement, but little scope 
for dramatic invention, since this rule tended to exclude many 
episodes, or subordinate collateral events, from the range of 
scenic representation. The artificial stiffness of the whole 
performance was still increased by the employment of the 
rhymed Alexandrine verse, in which the most homely dialogue 
was required to be poeticized, as much as the most elevated 
discourse. 

Far more free was the tone adopted by the English stage. 
The Shakspearian drama, though long unknown to the rest 
of Europe, and at one time little appreciated even in England, 
was prior in date to the French. It totally differed from it 
in its style, which we will describe as the hist or ico -moral. 
Selecting its subjects either from English history, or from the 



FOURTH PERIOD— THE CLASSICAL ERA. 



87 



tales of Boccaccio, or from antiquity, it took better care than 
the French to leave to its characters the historical features of 
their time and nationality. All the actions and manners 
ascribed to the heroes of the tragedy were so calculated as to 
carry the theatrical illusion to the highest pitch possible. The 
most complete resemblance of the actor's part to the character 
whom he professed to represent was justly considered in Eng- 
land as the life and soul of the scenic art; while in many other- 
respects, especially in the local and temporal circumstances of 
the drama, great allowances were made to the poet, and the 
events of years and distant localities were often compressed 
within the space of one play, the acting of which could not 
last more than three hours. But the nature of the subjects in 
Shakspeare's pieces requires a closer attention. The English 
poet has drawn a great variety of human characters ; but the 
principal part in his plays is always allotted to a person actu- 
ated by a selfish and purely private passion. The motives 
which prompt his heroes are unalloyed with sympathy for kin 
and fellow-men. Shakspeare is the dramatist of the relations 
of one individual to another ; he is not the tragedian of the re- 
lations between man and society. That class of passions which 
is elicited by oar zeal for a public cause which we espouse 
remains unrepresented in the English drama. Shall Macbeth 
be king, or Duncan ? Shall Shylock be the loser, or Bassanio ? 
Shall Othello possess the fair Desdemona, or his fancied rival ? 
This is the main question, but not the rights or grievances of 
vassals, blacks, or Jews. All the political and religious, national 
and social questions are removed into the background, and only 
made use of as subordinate or collateral circumstances, while 
ambition or revenge, jealousy or avarice, love or vain-glory, in 
short, the whole list of vices or passions which aim at self- 
gratification, principally engross the attention. Those trage- 
dies which are taken from history or politics form no exception 
to this rule. They represent kings or chiefs as swayed by a 
desire for self-aggrandizement, or as engaged in schemes of 



8* 



GEKMAN LITEEATUEE. 



conquest and usurpation, while it would be difficult to discover 
in the part of Julius Caesar or Coriolanus, in Henry 1Y. or 
Eichard III., any, even the slightest, tinge of patriotic motives. 
How little Shakspeare thought of dramatizing either popular 
or religious martyrdom we can see from the brief and almost 
unfair notice he has taken of Cade and Joan of Arc, while he 
has said nothing whatever of the noble but unfortunate Lord 
Cobham, and has avoided referring to the rebellion of Wat 
Tyler. Resting, then, on the foregoing observations, we ven- 
ture thus to describe, in a few words, the construction of an 
English drama: — An individual from the upper classes of 
society lusts for the throne, the wealth, or the life of another. 
His passion is grand and lofty, but his motives rest on no pub- 
lic grounds ; his schemes, while seeking their own end, are 
opposed to the instinct of self-preservation on the part of his 
victim, and this produces the dramatic excitement. At length 
the aggressor is successful ; but his triumph is short, because, 
in accordance with the law of dramatic justice, he finally falls 
under the weight of his guilt. This species of drama we may 
appropriately call the historico-moral, taking the latter adjec- 
tive as the reverse of civil or political. 

Such were the two principal styles existing at the time when 
Lessing founded the German drama (about 1 763), and when sub- 
sequently Schiller and Gothe continued to compose tragedies in 
the manner proposed by Lessing. " Minna " and "Nathan" are 
the two principal dramas of Lessing; "Gotz," "Egmont," and 
"Faust" are the best works of Gothe; and "Don Carlos," "The 
Maid of Orleans," " Wallenstein," and "William Tell" have 
made Schiller most famous as a tragic writer. The majority of 
these, and other plays of the German theatre, take their subjects 
from history; a few, however, such as "Minna" and "Faust," 
from common life . In their external arrangements and versifica- 
tion they resemble English plays ; they are either written in 
prose, or, more usually, in iambic metre, of five feet to each 
line ; they do not fetter themselves in their diction by the adop- 



FOURTH PERIOD THE CLASSICAL ERA. 89 

tion of rhymed verse; neither do they adhere to the rule of the 
three unities, which proved so inconvenient in the "French drama. 
Considerable latitude is claimed and taken in shifting the place, 
and extending the time of the action ; but the most important 
point of similarity between the dramatists of Germany and 
those of England is the principle of historic fidelity in draw- 
ing tragic character. The rule is laid down, and not violated 
in any of the better dramas, that each personage should act 
arid talk in the strictest possible conformity with the class of 
society, the age, and the nationality to which he belongs. 
Thus, when Lessing draws the character of a Prussian officer, 
such as Major Tellheim, or that of a French adventurer, the 
gambler Biccaut, he imitates the actual manners and the lan- 
guage of such individuals, and selects for their conduct and 
conversation those traits especially which are most likely to 
give us an accurate idea of the persons moving in their sphere 
of life. The same remark applies to the historical dramas of 
Gothe and Schiller; but, along with these points of resemblance, 
there are also great differences between the German and the 
English style. The peculiarities of the Teutonic theatre arise 
principally from the fact that a totally different class of dra- 
matic subjects, with heroes who are swayed by other motives, 
appear on the stage ; and by consequence the denouement is 
not brought about as in the Shakspearian plays. In general 
the German drama exhibits civic passions and social conflicts. 
The principal part in a tragedy of Schiller or Gothe is usually 
allotted to a generous patriot, who achieves the deliverance of 
his country, or to a religious martyr, who perishes for his 
belief, or to some champion or representative of one public 
cause or another. The events which take place are conspira- 
cies, imprisonings, riots, battles, and discussions ; the opposing 
party is represented by tyrants, or their governors — men such 
as Duke Alba, Gessler, or Questenberg. According as either 
the first party or the second gets the victory, the issue of the 
struggle is either a political revolution or a public execution. 

i 2 



90 



GEEMAIJ E1IEEAIEEE. 



From this rough sketch it will be seen that German dramas 
are not so much as those of Shakspeare engaged in depicting 
the evil consequences of private depravity, but are. on the 
contrary, pictures of the unselfish (whether the political or 
the religious) passions of mankind. The sympathetic, the 
generous, and the devotional instincts of man possess a vast 
preponderance in German tragedy, while all those impulses 
which spring from calculation of advantage, or from interest 
and love, act only a secondary part. The triumph, or else the 
defeat, of heroism, is the theme of Schiller and Gdthe, as the 
wreck of individual desires has been the subject of the English 
dramatist. 

A short survey of the main contents of the classical dramas 
of G-ermany will put the preceding observations in a clearer 
light. Lessing' s " ITinna" represents a high sense of military 
honour in conflict with poverty and love ; it illustrates the 
duty of the soldier and the officer. His i; Xathan" recommends 
religious toleration by the example of a sage Jew. Gothe's 
" &6tz" shows the pernicious effects of feudal turbulence in the 
case of a German knight ; his " Egraont" dramatizes the death 
of a Protestant martyr, or a Dutch patriot; his " Faust" ex- 
hibits the restless, ever-fretful Sceptic, overstraining his in- 
tellect, and vainly striving for happiness. Schiller's "Bob- 
bers" depicts the consequences of outlawry rebelling against 
the order of society; his " Fiesco" shows the evils of political 
agitation and republican conspiracies ; his " Joan of Arc" dra- 
matizes the heroism of a woman actuated by religious visions 
and patriotic ardour : his " Wallenstein" is on high treason, 
and his u ^Villiam Tell" on popular resistance against tyranny. 
Each of these dramas treats of some social evil or some social 
virtue, which is personified in their heroes : Schiller has se- 
lected those of the political, Lessing and Gothe those of the 
socio-moral order. 

Life and Writings of Lessing. — Lessing comes immediately 
after Luther in importance, and may be justly called the 



FOURTH PEEIOD THE CLASSICAL EEA — LESSING. 91 

second father of literature. He deserves this title, not only 
because he founded the drama, both by precept and by prac- 
tice, but also because he was the first good prose writer after 
the Reformation ; and, thirdly, because he introduced a freer 
and more critical treatment of theological questions. For each 
of these reasons his name ranks above that of any other of the 
earlier German classics, although his merits as a poet, as he 
himself acknowledged, were not high, and were at all events not 
superior to those of his contemporaries. Gottfried Ephraim 
Lessing (1729-1781) was the son of a Lutheran clergyman, in 
Camenz, near Dresden, and was intended for the Church. He 
had received his earlier education at home, and subsequently 
entered at the University of Leipzig as a divinity student. It 
soon became apparent that his predilections lay in quite 
another direction. He attached himself to an enterprising 
stage manager of the name of JSTeuber, and translated for him 
a number of French plays into German ; others he adapted, 
jointly with Neuber, to the tastes of a Leipzig public. They 
met with fair success ; and Lessing, who derived from this 
labour his share of profit, might have continued to do so, had 
not his father objected to see him keep company with actors, 
and, when remonstrance failed, ordered him home. Nothing 
daunted, however, by this paternal interference, the youth 
once more returned to Leipzig, and resumed his favourite pas- 
time, until he was bidden to exchange his University for that 
of Wittenberg. Here he abandoned the study of divinity, 
which had been forced on him, and turned to the medical pro- 
fession, perhaps only to get a better excuse for continuing his 
literary labours. Before he had time to obtain a medical de- 
gree, Lessing had gone off to Berlin, where he lived for poetry 
and composition alone. He published a collection of fables 
which he had written, in addition to some juvenile plays, one 
of which was entitled " Miss Sarah Sampson." The servile 
copying of inferior French plays had long disgusted Lessing, 
and he began to try dramatic performances of his own inven- 



92 



GERMAN" LITEEATTTEE. 



tion. His " Minna vonBarnhelm,'' a soldier's play, appeared 
in 1763, and maybe considered the first classical drama of 
Germany in point of time. The author lived at that time suc- 
cessively in Berlin, Breslau, and Hamburg. In the latter 
town he edited an important series of newspaper articles, re- 
edited under the title of " Hamburger Dramaturgic, " which 
may be called the prologue of the German theatre. In these 
essays Lessicg proposed new and definite principles of dra- 
matic art. He reviewed critically the tragedies of Yoltaire, 
and found fault with several of his pieces, especially with his 
"Merope," "Zaire," " Semiramis," and "Rodogune," for the 
delineation of their characters. He asserted that this delinea- 
tion was inappropriate and unnatural, not so much from the 
historic, but chiefly from the moral inconsistencies which it 
involved. He denied that French tragedy deserved the high 
estimation in which it then stood, while he pleaded for the 
English drama, as possessing qualities more congenial to the 
German taste. The rule of the three unities, and the rhymed 
verse of French tragedy, offered other objects for his attacks, 
which procured their total disuse and discontinuance in Ger- 
many. 

At that time the researches of a great artist, "Winckelmann, 
were causing considerable sensation. This devoted admirer of 
the antique had (so at least it is said) actually changed his re- 
ligion, in order to be enabled to go to Rome, and live near the 
Vatican and the remains of Greek and Roman art. In rum- 
maging among the relics and the dust of libraries in Italy, he 
had, among other specimens of ancient sculpture, met with 
the famous group of Laocoon, which represents the Trojan 
priest and his two sons struggling with the serpents, in accord- 
ance with the passage of the JEneid, where that event is 
graphically described. Lessing was full of the ideas of Winckel- 
mann ; and as poetry and statuary seemed to touch each other 
in the beautiful piece of sculpture just described, he composed 
an excellent prose work on " Laocoon; or, the Boundaries of 



FOXTETH PEEIOD — THE CLASSICAL ERA — -LESSENS. 93 

Poetiy and Painting," which contains an exposition of Lessing's 
philosophical views on the abstract principles of sculpture, 
painting, and architecture, in their relation to poetry. 

In 1769 Lessing became librarian in Wolfenbiittel, where 
he published his tragedy of "Emilia Galotti," and subse- 
quently his "Nathan the Wise." At this time he did not 
limit his labours to the stage, but became the advocate of more 
enlarged views on religion and Biblical criticism. A friend of 
his, Eeimarus, a surgeon in Hamburgh, had transmitted to 
him a manuscript which was said to have been found in the 
desk of a pastor who had lately died. The posthumous work 
thus divulged confessed the sincere scruples which that clergy- 
man had entertained on the literal authenticity of several por- 
tions of sacred history, more especially of the Pentateuch. 
Lessing did not hesitate to publish this manuscript, under the 
title of ' ' Fragments, by an Anony mou s Writer of Wolfenbiittel, ' ' 
thinking it, no doubt, more serviceable to the interest of truth 
and religion that theology should court inquiry, and not shirk 
it. This publication is by some considered as the first indica- 
tion of what is usually called Eationalism. As at that time 
the friends of such views were less numerous than they have 
become since, Lessing got into serious difficulties with the 
clerical portion of the public. A Hamburgh pastor, of the 
name of Gotze, raised an outcry against him, denouncing 
Lessing as a supporter of heterodoxy and disbelief. The 
quarrel became more and more envenomed, and Lessing closed 
his apology with the " Antigotze," in 1778 — a very vigorous 
specimen of controversial prose. His last thoughts on this 
subject he published the year before his death, when he com- 
posed a lucid and well-connected treatise on the Education of 
Mankind. In this essay he expressed his belief that the 
Christian religion was a Divine revelation, but that it had 
certainly not been the earliest vouchsafed to men, and might 
perhaps not be the last. He considered Christianity as a step 
in the moral development of the human race, however final 



94 



GEEMAN LITEEATEEE. 



in some respects ; he also exemplified this theory by the his- 
tory of the education of the single man, whose period of in- 
struction and preparation closes before he attains manhood, 
while, nevertheless, his subsequent life teaches him many 
things which he did not know before, and never ceases to im- 
prove the effects of his earlier moral education. 

The prose of Lessing is remarkable for vigour and perspi- 
cuity; he avoids all wordy circumlocution and unnecessary 
embellishment. The favourite arrangement of his ideas is in 
brief paragraphs, sometimes of no more than two lines. Most 
of his critical and moral essays are written in this form. He 
advances position on position, and deduces from them his con- 
clusions, without ever admitting a single assertion, except on 
careful investigation. 'He has left several comedies, and a few 
tragedies. The three principal of his dramas shall be briefly 
analyzed. 

Lessing' 8 Drama. — The tragi-comedy of " Minna von Barn- 
helm" dramatizes an incident of military life, supposed to 
happen in a Prussian village at the close of the great war of 
Frederick in 1763. A brave officer, Major von Tellheim, who 
had received several wounds in the war, is compelled to resign 
his commission, on account of a charge of defalcation which 
had been brought against him. He might have established 
his innocence, but not without involving, or seriously incon- 
veniencing, a brother officer, whose daughter, Minna, he loved. 
He prefers to accept a kind of forced leave, and, breaking off 
his engagement, retires to a distant part of the country. Years 
pass on, during which he hears no more of his friends. At last, 
when his wounds and misfortunes have reduced him to great 
distress, we find him in the hotel of a village, attended by an 
old sergeant, who would not leave him, though his master was 
unable to provide the most necessary comforts. A lady in 
mourning passes through the village, and stops at the same 
hotel. This was Minna, whose father had lately died. On 
hearing of the soldier's circumstances, she generously wishes 



FOURTH PEEIOD — THE CLASSICAL EEA — LESSLNG. 95 

to relieve him, and her anxiety to do so becomes still greater 
when she learns his name. However, the brave officer spurns 
to receive relief from a supposed stranger, and long refuses 
Minna' s offers, when at last a recognition takes place. Scarcely 
are the transports of the first meeting over, when Tellheim re- 
lapses into his melancholic humour, and wishes to depart once 
more. When his health is nearly shattered, his reputation 
gone, his means exhausted, and his prospects ruined, he gives 
up all idea of marriage, and despairs of a union which seemed 
so little promising to the lady. Unexpectedly some favour- 
able reports from the king's head quarters arrive in the village. 
A French gambler, who lounges about the hotel to inveigle 
the visitors and officers with dice and cards, brings some news 
which he had accidentally gathered at the gambling-table, to 
the effect that Tellheim' s lawsuit has taken a different turn, 
and that on the conclusion of the approaching peace important 
disclosures in his favour are likely to be made. Ere long an 
orderly arrives from Frederick the Great, who more than cor- 
roborates this report. An autograph letter of the Prussian 
monarch acknowledges Tellheim' s innocence, reinstates him 
in his dignity and income, and holds out good chance of pro- 
motion. The marriage of the couple is of course the conclu- 
sion of the play, which for style, intrinsic probability, and 
effectiveness, is quite a masterpiece. It was the first good 
drama composed in Germany, and possesses great charm, in 
the noble picture which it gives of the officer's integrity, his 
sense of honour, and his generosity. 

" Emilia Galotti" is a tragedy in prose, relating to some pro- 
bably fictitious event in the history of Guastalla. Prince 
Gonzaga abuses his power as a petty sovereign for the gratifi- 
cation of his covetousness. He is enamoured of the daughter 
of one of his subjects, called Emilia Galotti ; and although the 
object of his wishes is the betrothed of another, he cannot 
master his desires sufficiently to renounce the lady. An officious 
courtier volunteers his services to procure the removal of the 



96 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



bridegroom, by assassinating him on the highroad, on the very 
day when the wedding was to have taken place. The deed is 
done, and Emilia is seized by the attendants of the prince. In 
vain her father, who guesses the perpetrator, as well as his 
motive, demands her immediate restitution. He is put off 
under various pretences. When all his efforts fail, he obtains 
an interview with Emilia, when his daughter, who abhors the 
tyrant, gives her father a dagger, with which the infuriated 
parent stabs her forthwith, to save her from the passion of the 
prince. The story is manifestly a modern version of Lucretia's 
rape and death ; but the chief objection to the tragedy is, that its 
colours are too overwrought for our more civilized manners, 
and hence will not suit the refinement of the modern stage. 

In his last drama, " Nathan the Wise," Lessing, for the first 
time, used the iambic blank verse, which H. Schlegel had 
already adopted before him, and which corresponds very much 
with the metre of the Greek and English theatre. The prin- 
cipal character of this play is a wealthy Jew, who, according 
to Boccaccio, from whom the story is taken, lived in the time 
of Saladin, the Arab emir of Jerusalem. Although the Hebrew 
capital was then a scene of bloodshed and religious warfare, 
and Nathan himself had suffered severely from the contest of 
the Christian and the Mussulman, this sage was actuated by 
more benevolent feelings than many of those around him. He 
sympathized with the magnamity of Saladin, his friend, when 
he lost his wife and eight children in one of those outbreaks of 
fanaticism which have at all times been common in the East ; 
he determined to relieve the desolation of his household by 
adopting a Christian orphan girl, whom the tide of war had 
thrown before his door. Besides this child, a young Templar, 
a prisoner of Saladin, also becomes an object of his beneficence. 
In the meantime the Christian patriarch, who by the terms of 
the capitulation with Saladin resided in the city, seeks to tear 
the maiden from Nathan, in order to restore her to the faith of 
his Church ; and only with difficulty his efforts are frustrated 



FOUBTR PEEIOD — THE CLASSICAL EE A. 



97 



by Saladin. The latter often borrows large sums of money 
from the Jew, and talks freely with him on religion. In one of 
their conversations the J ewish sage relates the famous parable 
of the three rings, the moral of which is the necessity of 
religious toleration. The inculcation of this doctrine is the 
main object of this didactic drama, which in other respects con- 
tains but few salient points, and labours under a certain feeble- 
ness of action, although it shows also considerable skill in the 
connexion of historical circumstances. 

Among Lessing's numerous imitators in comedy, two sub- 
sequent writers became rather more celebrated than the others. 
These are Ifflatid (1750-1814) a stage-manager and actor at 
Hanover; and Kotzebue (1761-1819), a native of Weimar. It 
is said that the latter was jealous of the eminent poets assem- 
bled in "Weimar, in favour of whom he thought himself 
slighted. However, his merit was not equal to his preten- 
sions. He emigrated to St. Petersburg, and was sent for a 
year to Siberia, for having printed unpalatable remarks about 
the Czar. On the discovery of other performances of Kotzebue, 
which were more nattering to the vanity of the Eussian auto- 
crat, Kotzebue was recalled, and treated with greater respect. 
He finally left St. Petersburg, and returned to Germany. But 
as his manners and political opinions gave offence, he lost his 
life in rather an extraordinary way. A German enthusiast of the 
name of Sand, who thought him a Eussian spy and an inveterate 
enemy of popular reform, stabbed Kotzebue at Mannheim, and 
suffered death, without trying to escape or to disguise his 
motives. Kotzebue has left upwards of 200 plays, mostly dra- 
matizing family incidents from every-day life. Some are sen- 
timental, others more humorous, but few contain marks of 
poetic talent. Their characters and action seldom rise beyond 
the level of the ordinary caricatures and minor complications 
of social life. Kotzebue was severely criticized by the younger 
Schlegel and his brother, and revenged himself by satirizing 
them in his comedies. 

K 



OS 



GERM AX LITEEATUEE. 



Klopstock and Herder.— F. G. Klopstock (1724-1803) was 
horn at Quedlinburg, in Saxony, and was educated at the Col- 
lege of Schulpforta, then as now one of the leading public 
schools of Germany. He early distinguished hinself by his 
proficiency in ancient and modern literature, and entered in 
1 745 at Jena as a divinity student. There, and subsequently 
at Leipzig (for many Germans visit two, if not three universi- 
ties), he composed portions of his "Messiah," the first two 
cantos of which were published, in 1748, in the "Bremische 
Beitrage," the journal of the disciples of Gottsched. His 
friends, with the exception of Gottsched himself, entertained 
the greatest expectations of Klopstock ; while the old critic, 
who always misnomered him " Klopfstock," passed a very se- 
vere judgment on his effusion. On the completion of his col- 
legiate course, the poet became a tutor in a family ; but as he 
met with some love disappointment from a cruel fair one, 
Fanny, the sister of a friend, he quitted that post, and went to 
Ziirich, where Bodmer received him kindly. Not long after, 
the King of Denmark, Frederick V., gave Klopstock, on the 
representation of his ambassador, Moltke, an annual pension, 
to enable him to compose his " Messiah" at leisure. For the 
remainder of his life he dwelt either at Copenhagen or at Ham- 
burg. He had a large circle of friends, and twice became a 
widower. As an admirer of popular liberty, he hailed the 
French Re volution with joy. The warm expression of his sym- 
pathies did not escape the notice of the French republicans, 
who, on the establishment of their commonwealth, made him 
their citizen, as well as a Monsieur Gilles, which meant Schil- 
ler. But before that the excesses of this political faction had 
disgusted Klopstock, and he retracted his former approbation 
in an ode. 

The principal work of this poet is his " Messiah," a religious 
epic, in twenty cantos, and in hexameter verse, such as this : — 

" Singe, unsterbliehe Seele, der siindigen Menschen Erlbsung, 
Die der Messias auf Erden in seiner Menscheit vollendet.' , 



FOURTH PERIOD— THE CLASSICAL ERA. 



99 



It describes the life and death of the Saviour ; and its chief 
excellence consists in the sublimity of feeling which pervades 
it, though, from all the discourses of heavenly beings and evil 
spirits, from all the descriptions of celestial spheres, and the 
sentiments of the author no less than his heroes, we get almost 
bewildered, and miss too often the stirring action required in 
epic poetry. The performance resembles often rather an ora- 
torio than an epopee. Many, therefore, are of opinion that 
Xlopstock's merit should chiefly be sought in his odes, of which 
he has left a large number. They are written in blank verse, 
and Horatian metres. Many are addressed to his friends, Ebert, 
Eamler, Giseke, Hagedorn, and so on ; others celebrated his 
beloved Eanny, or her less cruel successors. A good many are 
religious odes, and a few are political. In these lyrical effu- 
sions the poet's sincere piety, his exalted patriotism, and his 
love for his friends, have found a powerful, and often also a 
happy expression. Klopstock is less successful in the drama. 
His tragedies, such as that on Arminius, and that on the death 
of Abel, are disfigured by a kind of lyrical rant, which, if ex- 
cusable in an ode, becomes perfectly tiresome when put into 
the mouth of a succession of tragic characters, who never seem 
to get out of their exaltation. 

J. G. Herder (1 744-1 803) was born in East Prussia, of poor 
parents. His father was a schoolmaster, and could scarcely 
afford to give him a good education, had not the self- exertions 
of his talented son made up for the deficiency of parental aid. 
At Konigsberg, the place of his academic studies, Herder met 
two great men. The one was the philosopher Kant ; the other, 
the Orientalist and theologian Hamann, u the Magus of the 
North," as he is usually called. Both had great influence on 
Herder. Erom Hamann especially he derived his fondness for 
Hebrew poetry, and that enigmatical manner which sometimes 
becomes perceptible in his style. Even during his university 
career Herder attracted public attention by several essays con- 
taining literary critiques ; and upon the termination of his col- 



100 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



legiate life he betook himself to travel. He visited France, 
formed the acquaintance of the ingenious Diderot in Paris, and 
thence went to Strasburg, where he met with Gothe, who was 
then a student there. About this time Herder was one of the 
chief advocates of " Sturm und Drang," i. e., of the regenera- 
tion of poetry in the sense of Klinger. In 1771 he became rec- 
tor of a large parish in Biickeburg, not far from Minden. Five 
years later Grand-Duke Karl August of Saxe-Weimar called 
Herder, on the recommendation of Gothe, to the place of his 
residence. Erom that time to his death Herder was the prin- 
cipal clergyman in Weimar, and took a prominent part in all 
the parties and brilliant soirees of the ducal palace. Like 
Schiller and Gothe, he was raised to the rank of a nobleman, 
and died in 1803. His fame as a poet rests chiefly on his 
"Cid," an epic poem in short trochaic lines without rhyme. 
It was gathered from Spanish romances, and sang the life, 
the exploits, and the death of Rodrigo Campeador, surnamed 
the Cid, a Castilian knight of the twelfth century, who dis- 
tinguished himself by his valorous combats against the Sara- 
cens. The Cid's love for Donna Ximenes, his duel with her 
father, whom he killed for having insulted his own parent, his 
marriage with Ximenes, and his death in the midst of a career 
of victory and renown, are successively related by Herder with 
the utmost simplicity and grandeur of diction. The first two 
stanzas of the " Cid" run thus :— 

" Trauernd tief sass Don Diego, 
"Wohl war keiner je so traurig ; 
Gramvoll dacht er Tag und Nachte 
Nur an seines Hanses Schmach ; 

" An die Schmach. des edlen alten 
Tapfern Hauses der von Lainez, 
Das die Inigos an Euhme 
Die Abarcos ubertraf." 

The unaffected pathos of his style has made his "Cid" one of 
the masterpieces of German literature, though those acquainted 



FOURTH PERIOD— THE CLASSICAL ERA. 1 1 

with Spanish assert that Herder did not adhere faithfully either 
to the text or to the spirit of the romances which he had be- 
fore him. He also collected the popular songs and ballads of 
many nations in his " Stimmen der Yolker in Liedern," a com- 
position to which the old Meistersanger contributed the greater 
part of the German specimens ; other portions are well rendered 
from foreign languages. Herder also wrote essays on the spirit 
of Hebrew poetry, for the purpose of vindicating the Mosaic 
record and the Old Testament prophets from some shallow cri- 
ticisms to which they had been exposed. His " Ideas towards 
the History of Mankind" is a work of much thought and re- 
search. Herder's style has peculiarities quite as striking as 
that of Lessing. It has been said of Herder that he wrote 
poetry like prose, and prose like poetry. While his metrical 
versions are done with a brevity and neatness of diction bor- 
dering on baldness, or on poverty of ornament, his sermons and 
essays are rather eccentric, fanciful, and teeming with Oriental 
imagery. Herder was not a master of argument or reasoning- 
like Lessing. He aimed at impressing his hearers or readers 
by means of noble pictures and lofty aspirations, but not at 
gaining them over by sober persuasion, or by appeals to the 
understanding. His pages read like one continued rhapsody, 
and occasionally tire by their frequent exclamations and inter- 
rogations. 

The Gbttingen Bichter-Bund. — About 1772 the University 
of Gottingen became the rendezvous of a number of literary 
characters, whose object it was to regenerate German poetry 
by a more thorough abandonment of the erudite, and a return 
to the popular style. They proposed to abjure all Latinized 
or Erenchified diction, and to write pure Teutonic. They 
wished to sing to the people and of the people. The common 
man was to understand their verses, and to appreciate their 
art. If hitherto poetry had chosen its models and topics either 
abroad, or in antiquity, or in the upper ranks of society, it was 
now to descend to the cottages of the poor, and to sing to the 

x 2 



102 



GEEMAN LITEEATUEE. 



unlettered of their tale of joy and sorrow. Consequently the 
main offspring of this school were idyllic and ballad-poetry. 
The movement of Klinger, and his dramatic bubble, though 
it did not originate within the club itself, was but a pendant 
to their tendencies. Bat Klinger had saved himself from 
school dust and pedant's rods by capers on the highlands of 
Scotland, and had taken Macpherson as his guide ; while the 
patriots of Gottingen would hear of nothing but the green 
lanes and mountain paths of Fatherland. Their proclivities 
were all for rural scenes and rustic life. Their heroes and 
heroines were the German Sitter, the villager, the Bauers- 
mann, and his Hausfrau. To speak or write in Low- German 
was reckoned meritorious ; and the favourite name of their 
poets' club was " The Hain-Bund," or Grove Association. The 
majority of its members were men of eminent scholarship, and 
a few of them were noblemen. The principal were Burger, 
Voss, Claudius, Holty, and the two Counts Stolberg, authors 
of some fine ballads on ancient knights. 

G. A. Burger (1747-1794) was a popular ballad- writer, of 
the highest order of merit. He led rather an irregular life for 
a Gottingen professor, was given to joviality and dissipation, 
married three times, and died at an early age. Few poets 
have succeeded better than Burger in writing popularly ; and 
had his steadiness in private life, or his judgment in the selec- 
tion of his topics, corresponded with his endowments, he might 
have ranked with the first poets of Germany, and indeed of 
any country. The best known of his compositions is his 
" Leonora," a very moving ballad, describing the distress and 
the vision of a maiden whose lover had not returned from Fre- 
derick's war. "When, at the close of the campaign, the army 
had come home, Leonora inquired for her "William by waiting 
at the roadside with her mother, and questioning every troop, 
as they drew homewards, with banners flying. But she could 
learn no news of him, and on returning at last with her mo- 
ther, sank half fainting on a couch. Soon she fancies she hears 



FOURTH PEEIOD THE CLASSICAL EE, A. 



103 



a horse galloping down the street, a well-known step before 
the door, and a knock from the rider. Her William is there, 
but he cannot stay ; he comes to fetch Leonora to the wedding, 
as he had often sworn he would. He wishes to take her on 
the saddle, for he has far to ride to his dwelling-place, and the 
wedding guests are waiting. Leonora obeys the strange in- 
junction. After a long progress through the night, he comes 
with her to a dreary plain, where his comrades are arrayed in 
order. They are dumb and ghastly pale; and in the midst of 
them William shows her his hymeneal resting-place. It is 
joined rather tightly of "four long boards and two boardlets." 
Nobody has ever told more simply and more powerfully what 
wounds the fiend of war inflicts on private happiness. Burger 
has written many other ballads of merit, such as " The Em- 
peror and the Abbot/' a comic poem, which derides the sloth 
and the ignorance of the prelacy; " The "Wild Huntsman/' and 
"Erau Magdalis." The music of his verse, the force of his 
traits, and the choice of his words, are quite inimitable, and 
leave the best specimens of German behind them. Occasionally 
his homeliness borders on the common and the lov/, and a few 
of his poems are wanting in delicacy. 

Burger is also the reputed author of 1 6 The Adventures of 
Baron Munchausen," which appeared anonymously in 1787. 
This satirical romance describes a number of improbable, or 
rather impossible, exploits, achieved by a German baron, who 
had served in Russia against the Turks. It is particularly 
laughable from the serio-comic veracity with which these ad- 
ventures are passed off as so many true stories. Baron Mun- 
chausen ties his horse to what he supposed to be a sign-post, 
peeping out of the snow, and finds, on awakening the next 
morning, that his steed is dangling two hundred feet above 
him, on the top of a village church- steeple, while he is lying 
at the foot of the church. A thaw had set in, and melted the 
snow. But with his usual presence of mind, he loads his pis- 
tol, shoots through the halter, swings himself on the charger, 



104 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



who falls at his feet, and rides off the next moment The 
origin of this composition dates from the time when Burger 
stayed at a German watering-place of the name of Pyrmont. 
Here he met the immortal baron, who sat at every public 
coffee-house, in the midst of the admiring visitors of the loca- 
lity, to whom he related his stories. The bragging FalstafT 
style of his alleged feats, and the terrifying gesticulations with 
which he accompanied his boast, struck Burger so forcibly, that 
he devised an exaggerated version of his narrative, and thus 
the famous satire of Baron Munchausen has been handed down 
to posterity. The baron resented the service done to him, and 
evinced no relish for immortality in the shape in which it 
was bestowed. He went to law, and involved Burger in trou- 
blesome litigation. The poet saw no means of escaping from 
Munchausen's ire except by casting doubts on his authorship, 
and trying to wash his hands of the lampoon. 

J. II Toss (1751-1826) was an able scholar, and an exqui- 
site pastoral poet. He has given metrical translations of Vir- 
gil and Homer, the best which Germany can boast of. His 
version will always rank highly among the many representa- 
tions of the ancient epic which have been attempted by mo- 
derns. The hexameter, the epithets, and the pleonasms of 
Homer, are preserved inYoss's translation ; and this at once dis- 
tinguishes his performance from those of Pope or Lord Derby. 
With respect to closeness of rendering, Wolff, the author of 
the famous Prolegomena, alone has ever said that it might 
have been done better. A translation, however, cannot pos- 
sibly be exactly the same as the original, and differences must 
be admitted even here. The version of Yoss, by its too la- 
boured and too learned character, sometimes gives us Homer, 
minus his simplicity. He was also an excellent original poet. 
His chief work under this head is his pastoral " Louise," a 
charming idyll in hexameter verse, describing scenes of rural 
life and domestic peace, and interspersing its homely pictures 
with a touching love story. Among the many minor poems 



FOURTH PERIOD THE CLASSICAL ERA. 



105 



which Voss has left, there are also two Low-German pastorals. 
On leaying Gottingen he was appointed to a professorship at 
Jena, and subsequently at Heidelberg, where he died. 

Apropos of pastoral poetry, two earlier idyllic poets may be 
mentioned, though they are not otherwise connected with the 
Gottingen school. Some twenty years before Yoss, Kleist, an 
officer in Frederick's army, had diversified his warlike occupa- 
tions by songs on shepherds and Arcadian scenes. His prin- 
cipal work is his "Eruhling,'' or " Spring," in hexameters. 
Kleist fought bravely, and fell, in 1759, on the battle-field of 
Kunersdorf. A contemporary of Kleist was Gessner, who com- 
posed a semi-religious pastoral in prose, on the " Death of 
Abel." This book has often been translated into English and 
other languages. 

Wieland and Richter.—Q. M. "Wieland (1733-1813), was the 
son of a Swabian clergyman, and began life as a strict devotee 
and composer of religious verses. In 1 750 he entered at Tubingen 
as a student of law. An unrequited attachment which he 
formed in that town gave his character a rather melancholy 
cast. In 1752 he went to Zurich, where Eodmer was still 
professor. The old veteran received him with marked dis- 
tinction, and he remained nearly ten years in Switzerland, 
until at last a Count Stadion induced him to return to Eibe- 
rach, his native town. Here Wieland obtained an appoint- 
ment, and became acquainted with a number of noblemen of 
much literary culture, but also of great laxity of morals and 
principle. The effect of this society on "Wieland was to make 
him lose a great deal of his earlier earnestness. He assimilated 
his manners to the ease and polish of the higher classes, and 
also wished to vie in elegance of style with writers like Vol- 
taire, and even to equal them in gaiety and frivolity. The kind 
of books he now sent into the world left no doubt as to the 
tendency of his sentiments. They were humorous novels 
or comic stories, such as his " Agathon," " Musarion," 
" The Abderites," and " Aristippus." Greece in the brightest 
periods of her history, between Pericles and Alexander, is the 



106 GERMAN LITERATURE. 

scene and subject of his fictions; and the courtezans Aspasia, 
Thais, and others, are among his favourite characters. His 
novels are free from downright indelicacy, but they inculcate 
throughout a liberal indulgence for the amorous foibles of both 
sexes. His style is graceful, humorous, and light ; and if he 
has not always succeeded in drawing accurate pictures of Greek 
life, he has yet shown no inconsiderable acquaintance with 
the spirit and history of antiquity. The same thing is amply 
proved by Wieland's masterly translations of Horace, Lucian, 
and Cicero's letters. While the text of these versions bears 
witness to his good taste and command of the language, his 
notes especially will convince any one who will examine them 
that Wieland was no mean scholar. In 1769 he was appointed 
professor at Erfurt ; and two years after, the favourite of the 
nobility was selected by the Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar 
to superintend the education of her two sons, the eldest of 
whom was her heir, Karl August. This post he filled to the 
last ; and when his services were no longer required for edu- 
cational purposes, Wieland remained in Weimar at Court. 
Gothe pronounced his funeral oration in 1813. His most popu- 
lar poem is his Oberon. This work is a romance in twelve 
cantos, in the style of Tasso or Ariosto. It sings in rhymed 
stanzas of eight lines the adventures of Huon, a Prankish 
knight, whom Charlemagne dismissed from his court, leaving 
him no hope of return unless he achieved certain perilous enter- 
prises at Bagdad. His accomplishment of these apparent im- 
possibilities was assisted by the fairy Oberon, whose name and 
character are borrowed from Shakspeare. 

The following is the first stanza of Oberon : — 

" Noch einmal sattelt mir den Hippogryphen, ihr Musen, 
Zum Ritt in 's alte romantische Land ! 
Wie lieblich um meinen entfesselten Busen 
Der holde Wahnsinn spielt ! Wer schlang das magische Band 
Um meine Stime ? Wer treibt von meinen Angen den Nebel, 
Der auf der Vorwelt Wundern liegt ? 
Ich seh' in buntem Gewiihl, bald siegend, bald besiegt, 
Des Ritters gutes Sehwert, der Heiden blinkende Sabel." 



F0TTETH PEBJOD — THE CLASSICAL EE A. 



107 



Johann Paul Friedrich Richer (1763-1825) is usually called 
Jean Paul, and belongs to the class of humorous novel-writers. 
His father was a poor clergyman in Wunsiedel, and educated 
him in rural retirement at home, until he was able to visit a 
school at Hof, and subsequently the University of Leipzig. 
Eut before young Eichter's education was half finished, his 
father died, and left his family penniless. Now came a time of 
hard struggling and bitter privation, especially as he had to 
support his mother. He completed, however, his college 
course, and subsisted by tuition and authorship. His first 
novel was " The Invisible Box in the Theatre ;" and his second, 
" Hesperus.' ' Then came u Quintus Fixlein" and the " Life 
of Siebenkas." In 1796 he paid a visit to Weimar, whither 
he had been invited by a friend. But both Gothe and Schiller 
failed to appreciate Eichter. On the death of his mother he 
left his birth-place ; and after repeatedly changing his residence, 
he settled in 1804 at Baireuth, in Bavaria, where he lived 
until his death. His only son lost his reason, and died at 
college, to the deep affliction of his father. Eichter' s best 
novels are his " Titan," w T hich refers to the religious Eadicals 
of the age; and the "Flegeljahre," or Years of Hobble dehoyism, 
which describes the experiences and conduct of two youths, 
the one soft-hearted and enthusiastic, the other of more mature 
intellect, and a cynical observer of mankind. These types 
represent the two main tendencies of Eichter's mind, senti- 
ment and satire. He regards human affairs with a kind of 
mournful regret, often verging on mockery, because his exalted 
ideas of friendship, love, virtue, and freedom are so seldom 
and so imperfectly realized on earth. It were almost better, 
so thinks Eichter, that man should be without the strong im- 
pulses of sympathy for his kind, so often are his noblest 
efforts frustrated, his hopes deceived, and his very prayers 
chilled into a curse. This supposed contrast between lofty 
aspirations and bleak, comfortless reality, is the mainspring of 
Eichter's humour. Otherwise his novels afford no very solid 



attractions. They hare neither a definite plan nor a positive 
story, bnt skip irregularly from one humorous topic to another, 
i— '.i 1:1: :: S:erze. His : es: z. 15 5.3.2 e 5 are desorir- 

:: Lir-is::^ 3 5:3:13:7 iri :: i:ne5ri: lire. 

of his characters are country parsons, alms' collectors, burgo- 
masters, and Tillage teachers. 



FOURTH PERIOD- — SCHILLER. 



109 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FOURTH PERIOD. — THE CLASSICAL ERA. SCHILLER. 

Life of Schiller — Eriedrich Schiller (1759-1805) was born 
at Marbach, in Wiirtemberg. His father was an officer, and 
destined him first for the legal, but subsequently for the me- 
dical, profession. He received his first education at the Karls- 
Schule, a Stuttgart College, where he spent six years, and en- 
dured very harsh treatment. The military drill established in 
this school, the punctilious regulations, the close superinten- 
dence of the pupils, and the occasional rudeness of the masters, 
affected the sensitive youth to such a degree as to render him 
thoroughly dissatisfied with his condition. The gloomy view 
which he then took of life received an eloquent expression in 
his juvenile tragedy of " The Robbers," sketched when he was 
still at school, but first published in 1781. At this time 
Schiller was preparing to become an army surgeon, and still 
lived in or near the College above-mentioned, when he deter- 
mined to abscond from his post, in order to escape the into- 
lerable tyranny under which he suffered. He went to the 
neighbourhood of Meiningen, where the mother of a school- 
fellow, Frau von Wollzogen, afforded him shelter and retreat. 
"While staying here he wrote his "Fieseo," and his "Kabale 
und Liebe," both of which contained exaggerated pictures 
of vices and virtues. After a temporary connexion with the 
theatre of Mannheim, for which he arranged stage-plays, 
Schiller became the principal contributor to a journal called 
" Thalia," and published in its columns numerous poems and 
articles, as well as two acts of his " Don Carlos. " Prom this 
period on he gradually turned to history, and began to apply 
himself especially to the study of the struggles which resulted 
from the Reformation. The fruits of these labours soon be- 
came apparent. He published his best historical work, " The 

L 



110 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



lie volt of the Netherlands," and subsequently his " History of 
the Thirty Years' War." He also commenced his fragmentary 
novel, the " Ghost-seer," which related, in an epistolary form, 
how a Count 0. had been brought over to the Eoman Catholic 
Church by the impostures and stratagems of a jesuitical wi- 
zard. In 1789 Schiller, who had some time before been mar- 
ried to a Fraulein Lengenfeld, received an appointment as 
Professor of History at the University of Jena. Here he re- 
touched and completed his drama of " Hon Carlos," part of 
which had already appeared in the journal just alluded to. 
The plot of this tragedy underwent a total change, which some- 
what marred its unity. From an amorous story it became a 
political drama ; and for the former hero, Don Carlos, another 
character, Don Posa, became the main character of the piece. 
In 1794 Schiller first entered into closer relations with Gothe, 
who had attained celebrity before him, and was Schiller's se- 
nior by ten years. The two master poets of Germany edited 
together two successive journals, first the " Horen," then the 
" Musen-Almanach." A large number of lyrical compositions 
of the highest order, as well as some critical essays of great 
merit, first appeared in the columns of these papers. Schiller's 
ballads also owe their origin mainly to this period of his life. 
In 1799 the Grand Duke of Saxe- Weimar, who had long been 
an admirer of Schiller, induced him to reside permanently near 
Gothe and himself; and thus for the last six years of his life 
he took up his abode at "Weimar. JNow only were his best 
dramas given to the world. His " Wallenstein" came out in 
1800, his "Mary Stuart" in 1801, his "Maid of Orleans" in 
1802, the "Bride of Messina" in 1803, and his "William 
Tell" in 1804. In the following year Schiller died of a pul- 
monary disease, at the early age of forty-five. He was loved, 
admired, and bewailed by all who ever knew him. The un- 
pretending modesty of his character, and the purity of his mo- 
rals, almost as much as his poetry, endeared his memory to his 
and subsequent ages. He was an excellent husband and fa- 



FOURTH PEEIOD SCSILLEE. 



Ill 



ther, a sincere friend, and a warm-hearted patriot. His intel- 
lectual and poetic qualities differed considerably from those 
of Gothe, although both were of the highest order. Schiller 
possessed greater talent for the drama and for historical narra- 
tive. In clearness of view, in earnestness and resolution, he 
was far Gothe' s superior. His temperament was lofty and 
generous, and hence he imparted sometimes to his tragic 
characters a tinge of the enthusiasm of his soul. More prone 
to admire the good than to search out the bad qualities of man- 
kind, he was instinctively attracted by noble and heroic actions. 
On the other hand, he did not possess the same talent for ob- 
servation as his friend. Gothe looked on men more dispas- 
sionately than Schiller, and understood much better to dissect 
their whims and expose their infirmities, even though he might 
not be able to clothe his observations in such a clear style, nor 
to invent such exquisite dramatic action as Schiller. T. Car- 
lyle has written Schiller's life in an admirable manner. 

Schiller's Drama. — The nature of poetic genius, in its juvenile 
stage, cannot be better illustrated than by the first tragedy of 
Schiller. "The Bobbers " dates from the time which the poet- 
spent at school, in Stuttgardt. As he had then but little expe - 
rience of the world, it cannot be expected that we should find in 
this performance any great powersinthe delineation of character; 
but for poetic feeling, for vivid imagination, and occasionally for 
style, there is a great deal in it that will astound its readers. 
Here and there the text has been improved by the author at 
a maturer age, but not enough to deprive it of its original 
character. Even a cursory perusal of the poems inserted in 
the drama will convince any one that a youth who could write 
such lines was predestined by nature to become the bard elect 
of his countrymen. The banditti depicted in this play are 
just that kind of characters which most young people like to 
imagine — a number of reckless desperadoes, each with a griev- 
ance and with a plaint against society. They are outlaws by 
no fault of their own, but by the wrongs of others, because 



112 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



they scorned to associate any longer with the monstrous knaves 
and the silly dupes of the civilized world. The captain of 
these brigands is Karl Moor ; he had been driven from home 
by the persecutions of a hypocritical brother; Franz, the 
brother, had cruelly maligned him before his father, had 
drawn on him the curse of the misguided old man, and pro- 
cured Karl's expulsion from the family. JSTot yet satisfied, 
his wicked brother had torn asunder the last tie that endeared 
his home to Karl ; he had estranged and removed from him 
for ever the lady whom Karl adored. Thus stricken to the 
soul, Karl Moor had fled into the forests of Bohemia, and 
warred against society, as society had warred against him. 
Collecting around him a band of similarly disposed young 
fellows, he carried far and wide his depredations, and rushed 
madly from plunder to carousal, and from carousal to plunder. 
JSTothing can exceed the stirring romance with which the bri- 
gand's life is depicted by Schiller. Yet the gloomy robber 
can find no rest ; his thoughts often recur to the past, and his 
mind dwells on the fond scenes of his earlier days. At length 
he resolves to dispatch a confidant to the hall of his ancestors. 
By this messenger he learns that his brother is but adding to 
the score of his misdeeds, and that success has only hardened 
him in villany. His aged father has been cast into a dungeon ; 
and Amelia, the beloved of his heart, is languishing in a nun- 
nery, because she will not marry Franz. She never loved any 
other but Karl. The result may be foreseen, and we are pre- 
pared for a catastrophe. Binding themselves by a common 
oath of fidelity, the robbers and their chieftain descend into 
the neighbourhood of the castle of the Moors. On their sudden 
approach, Franz Moor barricades himself in a fort, where he 
is assaulted by a party of the brigands, while Karl and the 
rest go to look for his father and Amelia. After a desperate 
fight, the villain Franz, expecting no mercy from his besiegers, 
falls on his sword, and dies. Meantime the aged parent is 
drawn from the prison where he had been shut up ; blind and 



FOUETH PEEIOD — -SCHILLEB. 



113 



half crazed, he scarcely knows the youth who clasps hira in 
his arms, and expires, after pardoning Karl, and retracting the 
curse which he had pronounced in a moment of unhappy de- 
lusion. Scarcely has the grey old man breathed his last, when 
the poor and broken frame of Amelia is brought to light. But 
what use was it to her to see again the friend of former days ? 
She cannot marry the blood-stained brigand. She asks for 
death as an act of mercy. "When Moor sees that his fortune 
is blasted for ever, he bethinks himself of his own exit, and 
reflects for a moment on the best mode of destruction. A 
thousand ducats are the price set on his head, and he thinks 
he might be useful by his death, as he had not been so by his 
life. He has noticed a poor labourer, a father of eleven chil- 
dren — his blood-money will feed the drudge and his family ; 
so he goes and surrenders himself as a prisoner to the poor 
man. Thus ends Schiller's youthful tragedy — a work which, 
with all its faults, seeks in vain its equal for wild grandeur 
and sublimity of conception. 

The tragedy of " Fiesco" dramatizes the conspiracy of a Ge- 
noese noble named Fiesco, who headed a plot for the overthrow 
of the Dorias, and the deliverance of Ms native city. His enter - 
prise is brought to a happy issue ; but in the hour of his vic- 
tory Fiesco lusts for the diadem which he had snatched from 
another. A devoted republican, once his friend, and a member 
of the same conspiracy, steps between Fiesco and his schemes 
of usurpation. He first conjures him to desist ; and when he 
fails to extort a promise to that effect, he hurls the ambitious 
noble one dreary night from a bridge into the waves that ran 
below. 

"Kabale und Liebe," or, Court Intrigue and Love, is a do- 
mestic tragedy, and excels in point of feeling anything Schiller 
ever wrote. It describes the fatal effects of a hopeless pas- 
sion, and the cruelty of a sordid parent in crossing his son's 
affection. The event is supposed to take place at a petty court 
in Germany, and shows what Schiller thought of such places 

l 2 



114 



GEKMAN LITEHATUEE. 



before he went to Weimar. Ferdinand, the son of a minister 
of state, has formed an attachment for a person of inferior sta- 
tion, whose name is Louisa Miller. The heroine of the piece, 
and of the opera founded on it, is the daughter of a musician 
who had given Ferdinand lessons in playing on the flute. This 
acquaintance proves highly distasteful to Ferdinand's father, 
who had destined his son for a very different match. The 
prince had a lady favourite to dispose of, and it is her hand 
which is to bless the wayward youth. But the latter indig- 
nantly refuses the boon thrust upon him, and nothing can in- 
duce him to forsake the chosen of his heart. When everything 
else has failed to shake his purpose, a diabolical stratagem is 
set on foot in order to put an end to his obnoxious liaison. 
The honest musician and his wife are arrested ; and to get them 
out of prison, Louisa is persuaded to write and sign a letter in 
which she represents herself as listening to some discreditable 
proposals from a court gentleman. When she has put her 
name under the falsehoods dictated to her, the letter is shown 
to Ferdinand. He demands in vain an explanation, and is met 
by Louisa with nothing but evasions, — coupled, however, with 
her assurance that she is*willing to die with him, as she knows 
their union is hopeless. Her despairing lover attributes these 
ambiguous answers to a consciousness of her guilt, and in a fit 
of despondency gives her a dose of poison, while he takes ano- 
ther himself. Too late he learns what base means and what 
pressure had been employed to extort from her a declaration 
from which her whole conduct dissented. 

We have thought it needless to point out the exaggerations 
contained in this, no less than in the two preceding tragedies. 
In their plot, and also in their language, they show a degree 
of extravagance which is eminently characteristic of a great 
poet in his younger days. At the same time, the pathos of 
word and action is sometimes quite overpowering ; in fact, it 
is just the want of sobriety and moderation which makes these 
tragedies miss the mark of perfection. 



FOTJETH PEEIOD SCHILLEK. 



115 



The next tragedy, " Don Carlos/' was a great improvement 
on the preceding, although it still contained traces of the old 
defect It makes a rapid advance towards the political drama, 
which was Schiller's true vocation. He took here as his sub- 
ject the story of the execution of Philip II. 's son, who was 
accused by his father of two crimes — a secret intrigue with 
the queen, his step-mother, and siding with the rebellious 
Dutch. The cruel monarch had taken and wedded the lady 
who was betrothed to his son, and Don Carlos still retained a 
lingering affection for his former mistress. He is introduced 
in Schiller's tragedy as committing repeated indiscretions, in 
conversations and letters, all of which are duly reported to 
the king. Besides this offence, he and his friend Don Posa 
take up the cause of the Dutch against Alba, and Posa becomes 
imprudently excited in his advocacy of religious toleration and 
the privileges of the Spanish province. The play ends with 
the imprisonment of the prince and the death of his friend, 
who is shot, by order of the king, while he visits the prince 
in his prison-cell. The fate of the latter is only delayed ; and 
in Philip's last words to the Spanish Grand Inquisitor we are 
given to understand that his execution was shortly to follow. 
In this noble drama Schiller has given fine descriptions of the 
horrors of Philip's reign, the bigotry of his court, the stern 
cruelty of the monarch, the terrors of the Inquisition, and the 
savage rigour of Duke Alba. To the prince Don Carlos the 
poet has given a better character than belonged to him in his- 
tory, and this was inevitable if he was to be the hero of a tra- 
gedy. Bat the critics are unanimous in finding fault with the 
invented character of Don Posa ; his language, they say, is 
more like that of a liberal and enthusiastic German, or like 
the part which Schiller would have taken, had he been there, 
than like the ideas which one might expect of a Spanish noble- 
man of the sixteenth century. Probably Schiller found, in the 
progress of his drama, which was not written all at once, that 
a personage of a liberal political tendency was required, partly 
to make a contrast to the rest of Philip's court, partly to bring 



116 



GEEMAN LITEEATUEE. 



the piece to its denouement. Political causes could not be 
dispensed with to explain the execution of the prince ; his in- 
trigue with his stepmother would not itself suffice to justify 
such a barbarous measure ; for as Elizabeth, the queen, remains 
virtuous, and Don Carlos commits at most but verbal impro- 
prieties, which seem all the more excusable when we consider 
that she had formerly been betrothed to him, the death of the 
prince for such delinquencies would have been too revolting an 
exercise of regal or parental authority. The poet was com- 
pelled to increase the guilt of his hero by misdemeanors of 
another kind. To invent these, history showed him the way. 
In 1568 the prince is reported to have been on the point of 
escaping to Holland, where he intended to place himself at 
the head of the insurgents; but his father frustrated his design. 
Of this incident Schiller made an extensive use, when he re- 
modelled and completed his original sketch of the drama. He 
let Hon Carlos embroil himself in the Hutch rebellion ; and to 
explain his schemes, he gave him a friend who might suggest 
this policy ; this friend was necessarily a Spanish liberal, one 
of the opponents of Alba, one who sided with the moderate 
party, and who preferred a more humane regime to the atroci- 
ties committed by the Huke. Schiller supposed him to have 
been young and magnanimous, and to have resided two years 
in Holland, during which time he might well have imbibed 
some of the notions of religious liberty and political indepen- 
dence which were then so rife among the Hutch. Schiller 
put, in fact, into his mouth the sentiments which the sight of 
the struggle then raging in Holland could not but awake in 
the bosom of any unprejudiced eye-witness. In consideration 
of all these circumstances, we can excuse a great deal of the 
enthusiasm of Hon Posa ; and the error of the dramatist can at 
most only be that of excess in colouring, but not of totally false 
delineation of character. In this sense^ therefore, we may still 
claim the tragedy of "Hon Carlos" as one of the better and 
classical dramas of Germany. 

When, after a lapse of eleven years, Schiller once more 



FOUKTH PEEIOD SCHILLER. 



117 



turned to tragedy, his genius, matured by age, rose at once to 
the highest degree of excellence and purity. His " Wallen- 
stein" is a masterpiece of dramatic art, both for historical 
truth and for grandeur of conception. Though of considerable 
length, the tragedy, or rather the trilogy, preserves through- 
out great simplicity in its plot, and a happy unity of action, 
since all the incidents are grouped around one man, "whose 
tragic end was the consequence of his fatal ambition. Led by 
his mighty aspirations to power, and disgusted with the insane 
measures and ingratitude of Vienna, the Austrian general is 
just on the point of forsaking the imperial cause, and taking 
part with the Swedes, when his treasonable enterprise is 
thwarted, and his life brought to an untimely close by the dag- 
ders of hired assassins. There was in his retinue one Piccolo- 
mini, an officer of Italian descent, and formerly a comrade, 
but afterwards a jealous rival of Wallenstein. In his soul 
loyalty to the Emperor and hope of promotion had drowned 
the voice of friendship, and he had long in secret undermined 
the schemes of his general by a deeply-laid snare for his de- 
struction. At Eger, whither the general had gone with a 
chosen few, the messengers of Piccolomini surprise Wallen- 
stein just after he has gone to rest. In the dark of night, 
while all is hushed around the castle, the bloody deed is per- 
petrated. The details of this scene are brought out with fas- 
cinating effect ; but the growth of the conspiracy, the charac- 
ters and motives of the murderers, are also set before us with 
tragic power. The most attractive personage of the drama is 
Wallenstein himself. His almost superhuman energy, his 
sullen, high-souled pride, his unlimited influence over the sol- 
diers, his magnificent generosity, and his credulous faith in 
astrology, are so many historic, as well as dramatic traits, which 
since Schiller wrote have been inseparably associated with 
the name of that general. The army and soldiers of the thirty 
years' war, and the state of the empire, torn by invasion, re- 
ligious strife, and private jealousies, are drawn with a masterly 



113 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



hand. Schiller placed these collateral features of his drama 
in the two earlier portions of his trilogy, and thus avoided 
making his tragedy too diffuse. Another episode, and that not 
the least affecting, is the love of the fiery Max Piccolomini, 
son to the officer just mentioned, for Thecla, the only daughter 
of "Wallenstein ; and although it may surprise at first sight to 
find love and treachery dwelling closely together under one 
roof, Schiller has understood how to manage their courtship 
with equal dignity and probability. 

The tragedy of "Mary Stuart" shows that unhappy queen 
suffering for her Catholic faith, and doing compulsory penance 
for the sins of her earlier life. The chief charm of this piece 
is the picture it contains of royalty fallen so low, and bereaved 
of all hope. Her beauty, her rank, her noble bearing, her re- 
signation, make us forget the levity of Mary's youth ; and a 
powerful emotion of sympathy is the only thought with which 
we see her, on her last walk, tread the scaffold, and hasten to 
the termination of her earthly misery. 

In his next drama, " The Maid of Orleans," Schiller gene- 
rously attempted to vindicate the character of Joan of Arc from 
the scurrilous ridicule of Yoltaire. The author of " La Pu- 
eelle" had defiled the name of his heroic countrywoman by a 
satire in which Joan figured as a low courtezan, just as stu- 
pidly fanatical and morally debased as a female camp follower 
and a puppet of rustic superstition ought to be. Neither had 
Shakspeare done justice to Joan. In his "Henry VI.," 
Part I., she is represented as a female charlatan, without any 
high motive, guilty of imposture as well as immorality, and 
richly deserving her fate, which made her the scoff of the Eng- 
lish soldier, as once she had been his terror. The genius of 
poetry had appeared to Schiller in a loftier guise. He could 
discern heroism wherever he found it. Whatever national or 
religious bias he might feel, neither of these was such as to in- 
terfere with a just appreciation of the shepherdess ofVaucou- 
lcurs. He therefore determined to make Joan of Arc the he- 



FOUETH PEEIOD SCHXLLEE. 



119 



roine of a tragedy, and to draw her character as that of a 
woman actuated by a religious patriotism, and firmly per- 
suaded of the divine origin of her mission. This view" is at 
once the most poetical and the most historically true which 
he could have taken of the Maid of Orleans; and Schiller 
must stand acquitted of having in any main point falsified 
the page of history by a picture of fictitious grandeur. 

Let us, for a moment, reflect on the achievements of Joan. 
She roused her king and countrymen from their lethargy ; 
she marched in the front of armies against a foreign foe ; she 
crowned her sovereign at Eheims, and spread dismay among 
the English before Orleans. Such deeds could not have been 
accomplished without a corresponding degree of nerve and re- 
solution. There must have been in Joan some moral force 
which raised her above the vulgar ; unless we assume that the 
law of cause and effect was violated in her case, we must be- 
lieve that she was stimulated by a powerful and inspired pa- 
triotism, which made her rise from her humble station, and 
enabled her to restore the fortunes as well as the spirit of an 
utterly disheartened people. That her religious ideas were 
coloured by the superstitions of her age, is probable enough ; 
that her career was not unchequered by trials and humiliations, 
is equally probable ; it is no less natural that her fortitude 
should not always preserve its masculine character, but be 
alloyed with a remnant of softer inclinations. If heroism in 
a woman is a historical reality, it must be liable to each of 
these exceptions. Schiller fully discerned all such accessories 
in the part of the Maid, and gave to each their due weight. 
His " Johanna" is no savage amazon, or Indian goddess, 
weltering in blood, and trampling on humanity; she is a 
meek, a gentle, and devoted virgin, to whom the Queen of 
Heaven, in whom she believed, had often appeared in her 
dreams, bidding her to gird on her armour, and bear her ban- 
ner before the hosts of France, until the foe be expelled. This 
she thought her heavenly mission, and this mission she accom- 



120 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



plished. Once, indeed, she seems to falter. The work of 
blood disgusts the maiden, when an English prisoner, the 
youthful Lionel, should have died by her hands, as many had 
done before. A womanly sympathy steals over her heart, and 
for a moment the touch of mortal affection seems to enter her 
martial breast ; it is but for a moment. After a brief struggle 
of conflicting emotions, Joan returns to her self-imposed task. 
Yet she is conscious that her doom is near ; the cruel impu- 
tations of some of her own friends contribute to damp her 
spirits. Her father, Thibaut, had come into the camp, and 
accused her of witchcraft. Johanna hears the charge in dumb 
silence, and determines to seek her death in battle. "With this 
last event Schiller's tragedy ends, though he lets his heroine 
die under circumstances different from those found in history. 
The ignominious execution of the Maid did not suit the laws 
of tragic justice, and would have given too violent a shock to 
the feelings of a theatrical audience. The poet, therefore, de- 
termined to let his Johanna die from wounds received in 
battle, after a feat of superhuman valour, as she suddenly 
breaks her prison- chains in the English camp, and rescues her 
king from imminent danger. 

The " Bride of Messina " was an attempt to introduce the 
Greek chorus on the German stage. This tragedy is simple 
in conception, and, like most of Schiller's latter compositions, 
distinguished by the gorgeous beauty of its diction. The 
choral odes inserted in it rather depart from their ancient 
type, especially as there are two choruses ; but though so far 
the attempt was unsuccessful, the piece is replete with beauties 
of a high order. The story is that of the two Sicilian brothers, 
who are actuated by implacable hatred of each other, and who 
fall in love with the same maiden, without knowing that she 
was their sister. She had been removed from the royal palace 
by her mother, and was educated in a retired place, because it 
had been prophesied that she would prove a cause of discord 
and destruction to the princes of Messina ; but no sooner is 



FOTJETH PERIOD SCHILLER. 



121 



she discovered by the two brothers, than she excites in each a 
similar flame, and their old jealousy breaks out with redoubled 
fury. One is killed ; the other flees from Messina, never to 
return. 

" William Tell" is not only the latest, but the best pro- 
duction of Schiller, though others prefer his " Wallenstein." 
The subject of this drama is the struggle of the Swiss against 
their Austrian oppressors, and their final deliverance from a 
foreign yoke. Pew tragedies can show a more happy blend- 
ing of history with poetic invention. The sources from which 
Schiller drew his information were the chronicle of Tschudi, 
and the history of J. Miiller. The majority of the traits and 
incidents of the drama can be traced back to either or both of 
these authors. We are from the outset transferred to the 
scenery of the Alps — to the lakes, the chamois, the shepherds, 
and the huntsmen of Switzerland ; and this topographical 
fidelity, clad in such charming colours, is the more wonderful, 
as Schiller was a perfect stranger to the scenes which he de- 
scribes. We are delighted also with true pictures of old Swiss 
manners — of the piety, simplicity, and heroism of this sturdy 
race, of their indomitable courage in defence of freedom, and 
their bold self-devotion in resisting the injustice of their 
tyrants. The daring exploits of Tell, the erection as well as 
the final demolition of the state prison in Uri, the blinding of 
old Baumgarten, the conspiracy on the Eiitli, the encounter of 
Tell with Gessler, the deaths of the three governors, and the 
appearance of the parricide who slew the Emperor, are all 
grand and masterly scenes. We should not like to miss any 
one of them, nor can we pronounce a single one irrelevant to 
the plot of the tragedy. Some critics, indeed, have held the 
contrary opinion, and would strike out one half of these scenes, 
as extraneous to the story of William Tell. But we have no 
hesitation in asserting that Schiller understood the principles 
of his dramatic art much better than these critics. It is a fatal 
mistake to measure Schiller's political drama by the standard 

M 



122 



GEEMAjST liteeattjee. 



of the Shakspearian stage-art, and to overlook that the Ger- 
man theatre, from its radical difference in kind and design, 
cannol possibly accommodate itself to the restrictions of those 
tragedies which merely dramatize individual achievement. The 
struggle of a people against its oppressors is an eminently dra- 
matic event ; but to represent it well on the theatre, a wider 
range and a more extensive economy must be allowed to the 
poet who undertakes its delineation than is allotted to scenic 
exhibitions of mere private exploits. Let us for a moment 
suppose Schiller had acted upon the suggestion of these critics, 
and had introduced his " William Tell" in the more isolated 
attitude of a Shakspearian hero. The result would have 
been alike fatal to the poetic effect, and repugnant to the his- 
toric truth of his story. His tragedy would have dwindled 
down to the proportions of a bloody fray between a huntsman 
and his magistrate. The grand spectacle of the popular rising 
would have been lost sight of. The triumph of the national 
cause would have been obliterated by a secondary private 
squabble ; and, to crown the absurdity of such a performance, 
Schiller would have either suppressed the political significance 
of Tell's heroism, or else misrepresented him as the accidental 
deliverer of an indifferent and apathetic population. 

Schiller's Minor Poems. — Of the lyrical compositions of the 
German master, none is more renowned than " The Song of the 
Bell,' 7 which alone would have sufficed to immortalize his 
name. This poem sings of the great drama of life, and the 
thoughts are suggested by the founding of a bell. As church 
bells are conventionally connected with every scene and stage 
of human existence, so they have ever proved a fruitful theme 
for lyrical poetry. They herald the birth of man, they peal in 
j oyous tones at his wedding, and, when the last scene of life 
concludes, they toll his epilogue. They also call the congre- 
gation, they give warning of a fire, they sound in times of war, 
and they are pulled by the hands of an insurgent mob. These 
ideas have been expressed by Schiller with an art and a talent 



FOURTH PEKIOD— SCHILLER. 



123 



which will make his song for ever a favourite piece with all 
who relish the poetical aspects of life. A similarly philoso- 
phical poem is " The Walk," which expresses in elegiacs the 
meditations of the poet while strolling on a country highroad. 
Here the progress of the human race is his theme, as in the 
preceding poem it was the lot and history of the single man. 
The rural cottage, the turreted town, the churchyard epitaph, 
the busy factory, and the thronged port, awaken in the poet a 
series of reflections on the pursuits of mankind and the stages 
of their social progress. Schiller's " Pilgrim" expresses beauti- 
fully the longings of his soul for happiness and virtue, and tells in 
mournful accents his regret that both are so imperfectly realized 
on earth. His " Three Words of Faith" give us some insight 
into the poet's religious opinions, which, if not strictly ortho- 
dox, were yet those of a devout and earnest mind. Nor must 
we forget to mention his stirring ballads, the true household 
poetry of the German nation. It almost exceeds belief what 
a degree of popularity these ballads have attained among the 
countrymen of Schiller. The punster and the gazetteer, the 
schoolboy and the orator, the actor and the drawing-room critic, 
all know by heart and quote their immortal lines. Dramatic and 
truly heroic action, vivid descriptions, fervid feeling, and glow- 
ing passion, are their distinguishing traits. The most remarkable 
are " The Diver," "The Combat with the Dragon," " The 
Glove, "Knight Toggenburg," " Hero and Leander," "The 
Cranes of Ibycus 5 " and " The Walk to the Forges." With 
various subjects taken from history or ancient traditions, they 
describe the power of friendship and love, or the eternal com- 
pensations of the moral law, which ever avenges the wrong, and 
saves the innocent. 



124 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



CHAPTER IX. 

FOURTH PERIOD— THE CLASSICAL ERA. GOTHE, 

Life of Gothe.— ^oh^rm Wolfgang Gothe (1749-1832) was 
a native of Erankfurt-on-the-Maine, and son of an imperial 
councillor in easy circumstances. Prom the earliest infancy he 
gave many indications of a keen and precocious intellect, and 
entered at seventeen on his collegiate studies at Leipzig, where 
Gottsched, Ernesti, and Gellert were then still in the apogee 
of their glory. Young Gothe soon wearied of logic and juris- 
prudence, and turned his attention chiefly to the fine arts, 
chemistry, and botany. But even such favourite pursuits 
could not equal in attractions the charms of certain lady friends 
of his acquaintance ; and, to tell briefly the story of his life, 
Gothe — peace be with his ashes — was from eighteen to eighty 
a fickle admirer of the fair ; and, " mutatam fldem !" is the ir- 
resistible reflection suggested to the biographer who glances at 
each successive period of his earthly being. The first on the 
list was a Eraulein Schonkopf. She parted with the poet, after 
but little heart-breaking, to marry a physician. Our young 
Adonis, taking it very much to heart, left Leipzig, idled, be- 
came ill, lingered at home, and then resumed his studies in 
another university. He went to Strasburg, which was then a 
Erench town, inhabited by Germans. Here he met Herder, 
who was detained in the city by an attack of ophthalmia. One 
or two more passing attachments soon effaced every recollec- 
tion of the first. The last was formed with Erederika, the 
daughter of a pastor in Sesenheim, a village close by Stras- 
burg. Eortunately these flirtations did not interfere with the 
progress of his studies ; for in 1 771 he took his degree as Doc- 
tor of Laws, and returned home to his parents. During the 
next four years, which coincided with the " Sturm und Drang" 
period of German literature, Gothe established his reputation 



FOURTH PERIOD GrOTHE. 



125 



as an author. He wrote and published a drama, entitled " Gotz 
von Berlichingen, surnamed Iron-hand/' in which he de- 
lineated, with broad outline and historic colouring, the tur- 
bulent conduct of an old German baron, who carried his 
knightly malpractices to such an extent, that his emperor and 
his more powerful neighbours were compelled to imprison him, 
after a desperate struggle, and would have executed him for 
his turbulence, had not the timely death of Gotz anticipated 
their sentence., This drama appeared in 1773, and thus was 
later than Lessing's " Minna" by ten years, while it preceded 
Schiller's first tragedy by eight. The extraordinary applause 
with which it was greeted by the public is not so much 
due to the high merits of the production itself as to the cir- 
cumstance that it was the first attempt at dramatizing inci- 
dents and characters of German history. In the person of Gotz 
the ancient Bitter seemed to rise from their grave ; and the 
gorgeous display of mock heroism and mediaeval pageantry with 
which he was surrounded reminded the Germans of their bril- 
liant ancestry. Hence the play was followed by numerous 
imitations ; chivalrous novels and dramas flooded the market 
for several years. In the mean time Go the, who had accepted a 
temporary engagement at a tribunal in Wetzlar, came out with 
a new book of a totally different character. This was his sen- 
timental novel, "The Sorrows of "Werther." It told, under 
the fictitious name of Werther, the misfortunes of a young man 
whose real name was Jerusalem, and whose suicide, in conse- 
quence of an unsuccessful passion for a young lady, who be- 
came the wife of another, caused at that time considerable sen- 
sation. Charlotte, or Lottchen, the cruel fair one of the story, 
was the daughter of the burgomaster of Wetzlar, and had by 
the advice of her parents married a Mr. Kestner, while she 
merely treated her less fortunate adorer with a kind and 
friendly regard. But Jerusalem, if we may call him by his 
true name, thought this too hard to be borne ; and as disap- 
pointed ambition lent additional bitterness to the sting of un- 
m m 2 



126 



GEKMAN LITEKATTJBE. 



requited affection, he coolly determined to destroy himself, and 
carried out this resolution with the utmost composure, after 
writing several letters, in which he exculpated every other 
party concerned in his love adventure. Gothe was personally 
acquainted with the Kestners, and knew also Jerusalem. He 
was thus enabled to complete, from their letters and what else 
he had heard, the tale of Werther — an epistolary novel, which 
contained the story and the confessions of Jerusalem before he 
ended his life from despair at the ill success of his love ad- 
dresses. It happened that at that time sentimental novels were 
quite the fashion, and consequently the " Sorrows of Werther" 
became the rage of the day to an unprecedented degree. The 
ladies pitied his fate, and shed tears over his story. The lovers 
sighed a la "Werther, and contemplated blowing out their 
brains so soon as their affections should be crossed. The book 
was also translated into French and English. Meanwhile the 
author of this literary excitement professed to smile at the 
sensation he had produced. He stated what was a fact, that he 
had written the novel in three days, and treated it as a mevejeu 
(V esprit, which none but fools could mistake for a serious com- 
mendation of the radical cure system. He also thought it his 
duty to apologize to Mrs. Kestner for having given so much 
publicity to a painful episode of her life ; and after some com- 
ments from her husband on the indiscretion he had committed, 
he found no difficulty in obtaining both his and her pardon. 
The sensation about Werther had not yet subsided, when Gothe 
appeared with a new production. He discovered a new style 
just as easily as he discovered a new mistress. The species of 
composition he now lighted upon was common life tragedy. 
"Clavigo," and shortly after "Stella," belong to this period 
of his life. The former was founded on an event of contempo- 
rary history, and gathered from a French memoir e. Clavigo, 
or rather Clavijo, was a young Spanish author in Madrid. 
He had courted and subsequently deserted a French lady liv- 
ing there, who was sister to the comic poet, Beaumarchais. 



FOURTH PERIOD — GOTHE. 



127 



The latter had expostulated with Clavijo on his faithlessness ; 
and, hurrying from Paris to the Spanish capital, had fought a 
duel with the traitor, and wounded him. Not satisfied with 
this revenge, Beaumarchais had disgraced Clavijo publicly at 
court, and procured his dismissal from a lucrative post. On 
these facts Gothe founds his tragedy of ' ' Clavijo." But, to ren- 
der the denouement more tragic, he lets Marie die of a broken 
heart ; Clavijo comes in accidentally at her funeral, and Beau- 
marchais kills him over her coffin. The play thus describes a 
funeral turning into a duelling scene, and an Ophelia with a 
Hamlet killed by a Laertes. The tragedy of " Stella" is another 
disappointed love story, in which a most amiable husband sud- 
denly turns out to be but a cold-hearted bigamist, and a cruel 
deceiver of his loving wife. It was fortunate that Gothe 
abandoned this style of writing, as neither its theme nor its 
execution can command any high admiration. But we must 
pursue the thread of his own story, in which there comes now 
a change to a different kind of life. The author of "Werther" 
resided at that time chiefly at Frankfurt, with his parents. 
Here he paid marked attention to the daughter of a wealthy 
banker, whose name was Schonemann. Although the court- 
ship between him and Lili (for that was her pet name) went 
on for several years, the result was as unsatisfactory as it had 
been in all the preceding instances. The poet was then a 
young man of twenty-six, and possessed of extraordinary 
beauty ; perhaps the very circumstance that he found himself 
so universally acknowledged as the favourite of the fair, as 
well as the pride of his parents, and the beau of the city, con- 
tributed to make him more supercilious in his admiration for 
others. It happened that just in that year the young Grand- 
Duke of Saxe-Weimar came through Frankfurt, on his way 
home from a wedding tour. He had just been married at 
Karlsruhe. This prince had previously seen Gothe, and en- 
tertained a high opinion of his talents as an author. As he 
felt the want of intellectual society at his petty court, and 



128 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



was captivated with Gothe's manners, personal appearance, 
and literary frame, he proposed to the young poet to accom- 
pany him to Weimar ; and after a temporary visit, he invited 
him to stay with him altogether. This proposal was accepted, 
and thus, from 1775 down to his death, in 1832, Gothe resided 
in the vicinity of the ducal palace, either in the garden-house 
of the Weimar park, or in his villa at Ilmenau, or in a private 
mansion in the Frauenplan, a street of Weimar. He stood to 
his patron in the relation of a friend, rather than a dependant ; 
for Gothe drew from the ducal coffers only a salary of between 
1200 and 1400 thalers, in compensation for his services as a 
councillor or minister of state, while he possessed a much 
larger income from his private resources. As his duties were 
not arduous, we might have expected that Gothe would now 
have devoted increased attention to his literary labours ; but 
quite the reverse was the case. For the space of nearly eleven 
years he published nothing ; he either travelled with the duke 
or discharged his official duties, or he amused himself in the 
company of Frau von Stein, the divorced wife of a gentleman 
of the Weimar court, who fascinated the poet by her elegant 
manners, her beauty, and her accomplishments. It was not 
until after his Italian travels, between 1786 and 1788, that 
Gothe was roused from his lethargy by the triumphs and rising 
fame of Schiller, who in the mean time bade fair to obscure 
Gothe's reputation, by his newly-published dramas and other 
poems. During and after this journey he wrote his best works, 
the sketches of which had long been lying in his desk. The 
tragedies of " Iphigenia, " "Egmont," and "Tasso," were 
now either retouched, or the wanting portions of their text 
completed. After having spent two years in Italy, chiefly in 
Home and in Naples, he also gave to the world, in 1790, his 
greatest work — the first part of," Eaust." Subsequently his 
genius employed itself also in novels, which are, on the whole, 
his least happy productions. The most noteworthy is " The 
Apprenticeship of Wilhelm Meister," continued afterwards in 



FOURTH PERIOD GO THE. 



129 



" Meister's Years of Travel." The interest of these novels 
does not consist in their narrative, since the stories contained 
in them are but very subordinate. "What they really do con- 
tain is Gothe's views on a variety of topics, such as the theatre, 
education, the female character, and the functions and destinies 
of man and woman; all these are considered from an artistic 
and intellectual, rather than a moral point of view. The stage- 
player Meister is usually the vehicle of the author's own 
opinions on these subjects. He is an enthusiastic actor, but 
at last abjures the histrionic profession as below his dignity. 
Still he cannot make up his mind to any other vocation, and 
vacillates in the choice of an occupation, just as he wavers in 
his choice of a partner for life. Among the female characters 
of the novel, the most interesting is Mignon, a devoted, earnest, 
and ethereal virgin, born in Italy, and ever longing for the 
country of her birth. It is she who sings the famous lines : 
" Kennst du das Land, wo die Citronen bluhn ?" which Lord 
Byron imitated, and Beethoven set to music. Mignon knew 
not who were her parents, and an unexplained mystery shrouds 
her descent in darkness. When she is dead, the veil is lifted, 
and her friends discover, to their horror, that she was the ofT- 
spring of an unnatural marriage. 

In the year 1792 Gothe made a military campaign. The 
Austrians and Prussians were invading Trance, in order to as- 
sist or restore the dethroned Louis XVI. As the troops of 
Weimar joined those of Prussia, Gothe accompanied the Grand 
Duke in the rear of the allied army. The expedition procured 
him neither amusement nor glory, and he was glad to go back, 
in order to finish his witty fable of " Beineke the Pox." Soon 
after commenced his intimacy with Schiller. The two poets 
often consulted each other on the plan and probable effect of 
their literary works, and also contributed to the two journals 
which they jointly edited. Their correspondence ceased in 
1 799, when Schiller settled altogether in Weimar. 

The last great production of Gothe's mind was his charming 



130 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



pastoral, " Hermann und Dorothea," written about 1797. 
Whatever was written by him subsequently to this was not 
equal to his earlier productions. Neither his contributions to 
optics and botany, nor his frigid novel, " Elective Affinities," 
nor his Autobiography, nor the second part of " Faust," are 
at all comparable with his earlier writings. The author's 
mind was much harassed in this period by both domestic and 
political calamities. Schiller had died in 1805; and Gothe, 
nearly a sexagenarian, was much distressed at seeing himself 
without genial society at home, as well as without a recog- 
nised sharer of his household. Frau von Stein still smiled on 
him, but she could never be more to him than a friend, and 
was now more than seventy. Great then was the surprise of 
the public when, in the midst of the turmoil of the Prusso- 
Erench campaign, while the battle of Jena was raging at a 
distance of but fifteen miles, and as the roar of cannon an- 
nounced to the Weimarese one of the most disastrous days of 
their fatherland, Gothe, the ducal councillor and the poet 
courtier, suddenly abjured celibacy, and married his house- 
keeper, Christiana Yulpius. The circumstances which led to 
th^s act need not be detailed here. They must have been of 
a nature to make Gothe regret his fastidiousness, which pre- 
vented him from entering on the matrimonial tie in an earlier 
stage of his life. Only a few days after this event the French 
broke into the city. The duke had fled, and the soldiery 
plundered the castle, as well as portions of the town ; even 
Gothe' s house was visited by a few French soldiers, who helped 
themselves politely to his wine and other commodities. JSfot 
long after, the peace of Tilsit restored tranquillity ; and in 
1808 Napoleon held at Erfurt a great meeting with the Czar, 
and several German princes. Among others the Grand Duke, 
and subsequently Gothe, were introduced to the Emperor of 
the French. Napoleon conversed with Gothe for fully an hour, 
and during their conversation questioned him about a passage 
in his " "Werther." A few days after he even paid a visit to 



FOURTH PERIOD GOTHE. 



131 



Weimar, when a ball was given in the ducal palace, and both 
Gothe and Wieland received some Trench decorations. This 
time was one of particular gloom for the social circle of 
Weimar no less than for the rest of Germany. Gothe had re- 
signed his functions as a councillor, probably because he saw 
his patron's treasury too exhausted to pay for any but the 
most necessary services. It was not until some time after the 
battle of Leipzig, when the French were totally expelled from 
Germany, that Gothe resumed his former post. In 1816 he 
became Prime Minister of Saxe Weimar, and retained that 
office till his death. Tor the last sixteen years of his life he 
enjoyed unclouded happiness. Praise and compliments were 
showered on him by both high and low. The excessive admi- 
ration paid to Gothe may to some extent excuse the occasional 
assumption which became observable in his conduct. His wife 
had died in 1816 ; and though he was now a septuagenarian, 
he had not done with the fair sex. He captivated, perhaps un- 
intentionally, several young ladies, such as Fraulein Lewezow 
and others, who would not be satisfied until they had chatted 
familiarly with the great man, and were on the watch for every 
opportunity for getting from him, first a kind look, then some 
friendly word, next some verses for their album, and at last 
perhaps some caresses. Although the Geheimrath von Gothe 
now wore silvery hair, he still walked erect, and preserved 
his personal beauty as well as his mental vigour up to within 
a very short period before his death. In 1 828 the Grand Duke 
went to his rest, and four years after the illustrious author 
followed him. 

It is no easy task to appreciate duly either the character or 
the writings of a man like Gothe ; and the brevity of the pre- 
sent sketch only increases the danger of saying either too much 
or too little on this head. All are agreed that Gothe was a gen- 
tleman of the most polished manners, a thinker of the highest 
order, and a profound critic of works of art. Notwithstand- 
ing the faults with which he has been taxed — such as an undue 



132 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



self-complacency in social intercourse, too much indifference 
to public questions and politics, and fickleness or irresolution 
in his dealings with women — one fact is quite undeniable, 
that he produced an extraordinary impression wherever he ap- 
peared. The veneration with which he was treated, not only 
by Germans but also by strangers, can only be explained on 
the supposition that, in addition to his literary endowments, 
he was a person of highly prepossessing and truly dazzling qua- 
lifications both of mind and body. At present, when the gene- 
ration of those who knew him personally is dying out, Gothe's 
fame must rest exclusively on his merits as a writer. These 
merits are high enough to secure him a lasting place in the 
memory of future ages, even after the impression of his person 
has faded away. The distinguishing feature of his writings is 
their great originality, and the amount of true and profound 
observations which they contain. His intellect was peculiarly 
impressionable, and combined with its receptive capacity a 
great talent for rendering and communicating any impressions 
which he had received. To say that his mind was like a mir- 
for to nature and society would be but partly true, and 
would require an important qualification. In both the physi- 
cal and the moral world Gothe selected for his observation 
certain favourite phenomena, namely, those of a simple em- 
bryonic or elementary character; while he seldom entered 
into the more compound, the practical, or fully developed fea- 
tures of either. Just as his scientific labours were engaged in 
analyzing vegetation, colours, or chemical substances, whereas 
they left the real and complex machinery of life and nature 
quite untouched ; so in his novels, lyrics, and dramas, he traced 
the effect of instinct in the actions of mankind, to the exclu- 
sion of the effects of matured will and reason. Go the' s writ- 
ings offer profound remarks on all that is most naive, most 
original, and most unaffected in, the amorous, the religious, the 
speculative, and the artistic propensities of man. He aimed 
not so much at improving his contemporaries by stern lessons 



FOURTH PERIOD — -GOTHE. 



133 



of morality, but rather at refining them by cultivating their 
tastes, and raising them to a better appreciation of the beau- 
tiful. Beauty with Gothe meant nature, undisguised, unvar- 
nished, and pure. Hence he applied himself especially to de- 
cipher our spontaneous likings and dislikes ; he often drew 
pictures of uncontrolled inclinations, as in his " Werther" and 
in his " Faust;" and he noted with predilection those hid- 
den and unsophisticated traits which spring with native force 
from the innermost recesses of the soul, before yet fashion and 
interest, calculation or social prescription, have exerted their 
influence. As Gothe pre-eminently observed the force of in- 
stinct, he touched less than Schiller on the public spheres of 
life. The manlier and maturer passions are, on the whole, less 
his forte. The same poet who described the scruples of the 
Sceptic, or the ravings of a love-sick youth, — who told the dis- 
appointments of the idealizing artist, or the simplicity of an in- 
nocent maiden, — couldnot also describe the natural history of the 
coarser passions, relate the strife of public factions, or the toils 
of ambition, descant on the collision of duty and private ad- 
vantage, or follow up the success or failure of any of the 
more practical aspirations of man. This has had the effect of 
depriving Gothe's novels and dramas of much of the stirring 
action which they might otherwise have possessed, and has 
caused that prevalence of the lyrical and pathetic over the 
purely dramatic or strictly narratory which is observable in al- 
most all his works. Still they offer a sufficient harvest of 
beauty and originality to place his name in the front rank of 
the master minds of all nations and ages. In Mr. G. H. Lewes 
Gothe has found a biographer who dealt lightly with his faults 
as a man, but severely with his faults as an author. 

Gothe's Drama. — The first tragedy of Gothe, composed in 
his twenty-fourth year, was written at a time when the Ger- 
man stage was quite in its infancy, and when, with the ex- 
ception of " Minna von Barnhelm," not a single play of any 
merit had yet appeared before the public. The new rules on 



134 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



dramatic art had, however, just been propounded by Lessing 
in his "Dramaturgic," and the first performance of Gothe 
illustrated, in many respects, the laws laid down by that great 
critic. Among other excellent observations, Lessing had as- 
serted that a dramatic poet was likely to succeed best when 
he chose his heroes among the ancestors of his own nation; 
and Gothe was probably acting on this advice when he deter- 
mined to select a Franconian knight of the beginning of the 
sixteenth century as the subject of his historico-political drama 
of " Gotz." The tragedy was intended to set before the spectator 
the evil consequences of feudal turbulence, as exemplified in 
the conduct and fate of this knight. There is a memoir of 
Gotz, or Gottfried von Berlichingen, written by himself; and 
from what we can gather from this and other sources, he must 
have been a true specimen of a quarrelsome, fighting baron, 
in the Eobin Hood style. His contemporaries gave him the 
surname of Iron-hand, because he had lost his right hand in 
battle, and wore in the place of it a metal glove, which he 
could use almost as though it had been a hand of flesh and 
bone. Gotz was constantly at variance with his neighbours ; 
either he besieged them, or else they besieged him. He sel- 
dom left the saddle, only sleeping when he was beleaguered, 
and then only in full armour. With his impulsive vehemence 
and pugnacious propensities he combined many excellent 
qualities, such as uprightness and veracity, affection for his 
family, devotion to his friends, kindness to his inferiors, and 
a certain degree of loyalty to his emperor. But wo to the 
traveller who crossed his path at the wrong hour, or to the 
imprudent one who had incensed his anger ! JNo town, no 
road, no private demesne was secure from his invasions. The 
tragedy opens with preparations for waylaying, in Haslach 
forest, a knight of the neighbourhood— "Weislingen by name. 
This knight had personally done Gotz no harm ; he was even 
an old acquaintance of his ; but Gotz had lately begun to hate 
him, as a retainer to the bishop of Bamberg, a mighty prelate 



FOURTH PEBIOD GOTHE. 



135 



in the vicinity. This bishop had seized a squire of GStz, on 
some pretence or other, and Gotz now retaliated by seizing 
his retainer. His ambuscade is perfectly successful ; he has 
five men, the other has but three ; he is prepared for action, 
the other is not; and so poor Weislingen is carried off to 
Jaxthausen, the castle, or rather the den, of the knightly rob- 
ber. In the progress of the tragedy Gotz commits another 
atrocious outrage. Thirty Niirnberg merchants, subjects of 
another prelate — the bishop of Mayence — come home from 
Leipzig fair. Gotz had a feud with this bishop also, and so 
he waylays the merchants; and as they offer a stout resistance 
to save their lives and their property, he maims two of them 
in a frightful manner. This act, however, was more than, 
even in those lawless times, the people could brook. The 
two mutilated merchants carry their complaint before the Em- 
peror Maximilian, who feels himself compelled to outlaw the 
baron, and pronounces over him the ban of the empire. A 
troop of soldiers is sent against him, but Gotz meets them in 
a pitched battle, defeats the messengers of justice, and only 
surrenders, after a desperate siege, to a three times larger 
number of assailants. Next, Gotz is tried at Heilbronn by 
the imperial town- councillors; but with characteristic impetu- 
osity he first defies, then threatens, and at last actually as- 
saults his judges. He would have paid dearly for his conduct 
had not, just in that moment, a brother knight and friend of 
Gotz broken into the town-hall, and once more set free his 
boisterous comrade; but this respite could only be of short 
duration. Though Gotz throws himself into the arms of the 
insurgent gypsies and peasants, he is finally seized, and once 
more lodged in Heilbronn gaol ; his faithful wife and sister 
attend him there, and console him in his last days. While the 
sentence of death was hanging over his head, Gotz died in the 
tower, lamenting in his last words the downfall of knighthood 
and the suppression of the practices, which he had thought 
the best sport of a free baron. Such are the principal inci- 



136 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



dents of this composition, which Mr. Lewes has rather severely- 
called, "not a drama, but a dramatic chronicle," because it 
represented a "whole epoch, " and not a passion; and a suc- 
cession of episodes, rather than a single, connected action. It 
is quite true that the tragedy is overcrowded with incidents^ 
and contains too many local and scenic changes. It shares 
this peculiarity with many Shakspearian dramas, which are 
not for that reason condemned, though, like Gothe's "Gotz," 
they are not suited for scenic representation. Still, it should 
be admitted that the picture of the turbulent knight is beauti- 
fully drawn; and that all the episodes lead to the same result — - 
the imprisonment and death of the quarrelsome baron. A few 
scenes only seem extraneous to the main object of the play, 
and others are too roughly sketched, or only narrated. 

The next drama of Go the was written about thirteen years 
after the first, and differs so entirely from it, that one should 
hardly believe them to be the work of the same author. 
"Iphigenia in Tauris" is an imitation of Greek tragedy > and 
proposes to revive, in form, plot, and language, the drama of 
Sophocles, or Euripides. The subject is the well-known 
story of Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon, who, during 
her residence among the Scythians of the Tauric Chersonese, 
was accidentally visited by Orestes and Pylades, and disobeyed 
the order she had received of offering them as a sacrifice to 
Diana ; thereby she got into difficulties with the king of the 
country, but yet finally succeeded in escaping with her friends 
from the land of the strangers. In this attempted revival of 
the Grecian style, Gothe made it his principal care to give a 
dignified picture of the noble self-devotion of Iphigenia. As 
she had done before at the sacrifice in Aulis, the young 
priestess exposes again her life and future, for the sake of her 
family ties and her religious duties. She declines the marriage 
proposals of the Scythian chieftain, braves his anger when 
commanded to slaughter her brother, and finally obtains from 
the king, by her prayers, both Orestes and her own delive- 



FOURTH PERIOD — GOTHE. 



137 



ranee. The opinions of the critics are divided as to the suc- 
cess of the experiment of reviving the antique. Schlegel 
pronounced the imitation a good one, and sustained his criti- 
cism by pointing to the simplicity of the plot, to the dignified 
tone of the dialogue, and to the preservation of the Greek re- 
ligion, as well as to the many other traits of ancient manners 
occurring in the tragedy. His judgment was first called into 
question by Monsieur Patin, a French writer on the Greek 
drama, who compared Gothe's " Iphigenia" with that of 
Euripides, and impugned the antique character of the German 
tragedy. The same side was latterly taken by Mr. Lewes, 
who stigmatized the work of Gothe as a failure so far as it 
professed to imitate the antique, but had no objection to call 
it a thoroughly German drama of a tolerable degree of merit. 
That " Iphigenia " was even in Gothe' s opinion no complete 
imitation of classical tragedy, the absence of the Greek chorus 
would be sufficient to prove ; but Mr. Lewes extends his re- 
marks much further ; he finds fault with the work of Gothe 
for the deficiency of stirring incidents, the want of action and 
conflicting passions, the too moralizing tone of the discourse, 
and the too humane and Christian-like motives put into the 
mouths, not only of the Greek priestess, but the ferocious 
Scythian. Some of these reproaches are just, while others 
are exaggerated. Among the rest, Mr. Lewes asserts that 
Iphigenia' s compassion for human victims is a non-antique 
trait, and constitutes actually a " rebellion against a religious 
rite." But, to say no more of the divine prevention of the 
sacrifice in Aulis, Mr. Lewes might have remembered that in 
Greek tragedy this practice is distinctly denounced, or at all 
events represented as cruel. In Euripides' " Hecuba" (v. 260) 
a part of the captive queen's appeal is based upon the same 
aversion to human victims. 

Gothe' s "Egmont" is a tragedy conceived in the style of 
Schiller, but distinguished chiefly, not by pictures of public 
virtue, but by more homely scenes of a deep and moving 
k2 



138 



GEKMAN LITEKATUKE. 



pathos. The subject is the martyrdom of the Dutch Count, 
who was executed by Duke Alba for having countenanced 
Protestantism and popular agitation. The hero is, however, 
principally brought forward in his private, and not so much 
in his political capacity. In order the more strongly to excite 
our compassion for the victim of Spanish tyranny, the poet 
represents Egmont in the full enjoyment of every pleasure 
and blessing which can lend life a charm. He is the idol of 
the populace ; he is possessed of wealth, rank, and beauty ; 
his heart is swelled by an overweening confidence in his own 
security ; he is in the prime of manhood, and the object of an 
enthusiastic love on the part of Clara, or Clarchen, a burgher's 
daughter, who rejected the addresses of another suitor, in 
favour of Egmont. But all these earthly possessions serve 
only to give greater poignancy to the bitterness of his fall ; 
the storm gathers imperceptibly, while the victim does not 
heed it. The mild government of Marguerite of Parma is 
superseded by the cruel administration of Alba, and yet Eg- 
mont makes no preparation for quitting Brussels. The pru- 
dent Orange warns him of his danger, and conjures him to 
fly ; but the infatuated man still lingers on the brink of the 
abyss. At last comes the scene of his arrest. The Spanish 
governor treacherously decoys him into his palace, and con- 
verses with him in a tone of deep dissimulation, while the 
antechamber is filling with his armed satellites. When the 
moment arrives, he provokes the resentment of the Dutch 
Count. The other becomes impatient, and rises to take his 
leave, when, on a sudden, the soldiers bar his passage, and, 
with a sigh for Orange and his counsels, the patriot surrenders 
his sword, and is hurried off to his dungeon. At the news of 
this disaster consternation reigns throughout the city., A 
black scaffold is seen being erected on the market-place, and 
the report gains ground that it presages the execution of the 
public favourite. At the sight of such horrors, the agonizing 
soul of Clarchen rouses itself to deeds of heroism. Accom- 



POTJETH PEEIOD GOTRE. 



139 



panied by Brackenburg, her old suitor, who would not leave 
her, she rushes through the town, and calls the people to arms. 
Eut the bayonets of Alba's soldiery awe the populace, and in 
a fit of utter despair, she commits self-destruction. The last 
scene shows Egmont lying in a trance. He beholds Clara, 
his departed friend, raised to heaven as the genius of liberty, 
when he awakens, and is led off to the scaffold. Such is an 
outline of this tragedy, which combines extraordinary pathos 
in several of its scenes with a feeble denouement and defective 
technical and scenic arrangements. 

Gothe's " Tasso " represents the author of " Gerusalemme 
Liberata," while engaged in an unsuccessful love-affair with the 
sister of his patron and duke. At the court of Alphonso of 
Ferrara, where he lived, Torquato Tasso is made to feel that, 
notwithstanding the high distinctions heaped on him, an in- 
superable barrier separates him from the family of his sove- 
reign. A prudent minister of state intimates to the court-poet 
that he ought not to overlook the distance of rank and dignity 
which lies between him and the Princess Leonora. Stung by 
his remarks, Tasso challenges the councillor; but the interfe- 
rence of the duke compels him to sheathe his sword. After 
considerable displays of eloquence and feeling, on the part of 
all concerned, it is agreed that Tasso shall leave Ferrara, and 
sigh abroad for the princely prize he coveted. He yields with 
the proud conviction that the poet's laurel which graces his 
brow will conceal and overshadow the traces of his unrequited 
affection. This drama, if so we can call a succession of 
smoothly versified dialogues, is peculiarly wanting in action ; 
it was probably intended as a poetical compliment to the 
"Weimar court, as all the characters in the play are represented 
in the brightest colours, and their frigid declamation dwells 
exclusively on the decorum of court-life and the worth of 
poetry. The Grand Duke had a sister, but there is no evi- 
dence that Gothe ever stood to her in the same relation as 
Tasso to Leonora. 



140 



GrEEMAN LITEEATT7EE. 



The greatest monument of Gothe's genius is his " Eaust," 
which was sketched as early as 1774, published in part in 
1790, and completed in 1831. This tragedy is founded on 
the old legend, according to which Dr. Faust, desirous to pe- 
netrate the mysteries of the supernatural world, gave up his 
soul to the devil, who visited him in the shape of a black dog 
(see page 74). Out of this popular tradition Gothe has made 
a tragedy full of meaning and interest, although it does not 
keep within the ordinary functions and limits of a drama. He 
modernized the friar of the legend into a Professor of the Uni- 
versity of Leipzig, and ascribed to him thoughts and motives 
which are likely to be met with in a modern savant of Ger- 
many. The part of the Tempter he personified in the cynical 
satirist Mephistopheles, whom he surrounded with a retinue of 
witches, spirits, and demons, from the ancient German mytho- 
logy. The play opens with a prelude, of which the scene is 
in heaven, and where, in the usual manner of the old Easter 
plays, the temptation of "Eaust" is resolved upon. The 
devil obtains leave from the Almighty to pervert that mortal 
from the path of virtue. Next we are introduced to the studio 
of the doctor, who presents the image of a very learned, but a 
very unhappy man. Erom his soliloquies the several causes 
of his discontentment gradually transpire. Eaust is leading a 
lonely bachelor's life in the prison walls of his college cell; 
besides, he is dissatisfied with his vocation, because it forces 
him to teach things which he does not understand— to proclaim 
as the truth a shallow counterfeit, a mere mockery of know- 
ledge, intended only to hide its own emptiness, and distasteful 
to the teacher himself; but harder than social isolation, harder 
than ungratified thirst for knowledge, presses on him the con- 
sciousness of his religious unbelief ; he has broken with the 
faith of his youth ; Theology, though he studied it hard and 
manfully, has only increased his doubts ; the consolations of 
popular religion are lost on him, the hardened Sceptic ; and 
yet, with all his contempt for established creeds, he feels a 



FOTJETH PERIOD GoTHE. 



141 



deep, an irresistible craving for the supernatural. He spurns 
the miraculous in the guise of ecclesiastic injunction, but he 
yearns for it in the shape of individual revelation. Thus he 
supplied, by the pursuit of magic, the gap which religion had 
left ; he pores over the books of the ancient magicians, and 
indoctrinates himself with the witchcraft of a Nostradamus. 

Such is the state of his mind, when one Easter morning 
Eaust takes a walk with Wagner, a college friend. "While ex- 
hibiting to his companion the doubts which were then harass- 
ing his mind, he notices a black poodle dog approaching. The 
animal wheels around them, and continues to approach in closer 
and yet closer orbits. Sparks of fire are seen to mark his foot- 
steps ; and when at last he has come near to the astonished 
pair, he crouches at the feet of Eaust, whines, extends his 
paws, and thus fawningly acknowledges him for his master* 
Eaust' s dull companion can see in him nothing but a common 
dog, " as other dogs there be ;" but he himself, being deeply 
versed in magic, detects, under the poodle's shaggy coat, some- 
thing supernatural. He takes the animal home, shuts him in 
his study, and tries on him all the arts which the ancient sor- 
cerer Nostradamus recommends in such cases. Soon the dog 
changes his form ; he assumes several portentous shapes, till 
at length, from behind the stove, with a gracious bow, out steps 
Mephistopheles. " Wherefore this fuss?— what do you, Sir, 
command?" says he to Eaust, who, with curiosity, examines 
his skeleton form and cloven foot. Thus commences Eaust's 
acquaintance with the devil ; the bond is sealed, and in his 
own blood he signs away his soul, on condition that Mephis- 
topheles shall procure him every earthly gratification, and all 
the joys of body or soul which he may wish for. Accordingly, 
Eaust is made young again by a magic draught ; and, bidding 
a long farewell to books and crucibles, he starts upon his ad- 
ventures, attended by his new companion. Neither moral 
scruple, nor a wish for repose, can stay his onward progress ; 
he longs for the recreations which he had so long abjured ; 



142 



GEKMAN L1TEKATTJEE. 



and as the former overstraining of his intellectual faculties 
had failed to give him happiness, he is prepared to seek it 
elsewhere, even though it be in the pursuit of sensual gratifi- 
cation. 

First they fall among a band of gay, young, reckless stu- 
dents, whom the poet has depicted with somewhat stronger 
colouring than really belongs to the German academicians. 
They sit together in Auerbach's cellar, at Leipzig, and think 
of nothing but drinking, quizzing, rioting, duelling, and dis- 
sipation. Tiring of their boisterous merriment, Faust is led 
to encounter the witches, who compound for him a love-filter, 
by drinking which he becomes enamoured with a beauteous 
maid, whose image rises before his eye. The fair form thus 
represented then meets him in person ; this is Marguerite, or 
Gretchen, the heroine of the most affecting episode of the tra- 
gedy. "We shall not enter into the details of their love adven- 
ture, especially as they are so commonly known. The passion 
of Faust is vehement and brief; and even* before it has quite 
subsided, he craves again for other enjoyments. At one time 
he visits with Mephistopheles the Blocksberg, the fabulous re- 
sort of the denizens of Fairyland ; at another he resumes his 
botanical studies. There are moments when he rues his bar- 
gain with the devil, and vents his deep despair on his sneering 
companion. The death of Gretchen concludes the first part of 
the tragedy. 

The second part is but a feeble composition ; it contains 
Faust's adventures in the domain of science, art, court life, and 
politics. The story is obscured by the introduction of allego- 
rical and symbolical characters ; written when Gothe was 
eighty-two years old, it shows throughout that the clearness 
of view which the author possessed in his younger years had 
totally abandoned him in his old age, as but seldom a passable 
scene, or even a rational dramatic dialogue, is offered to the 
reader who has patience enough to look for them. Attempts 
have, however, been made by commentators to find their way 



FOUHTH PEEIOD— GOTHE. 



143 



through the labyrinth, but with doubtful success. At the end 
Faust expires, while engaged in drying up marshes and digging 
a harbour. Mephistopheles seizes his prey, and wishes to enforce 
the contract on which he had lent his services ; but the ange- 
lic hosts appear, and carry off Faust to heaven, where he meets 
Gretchen, and is absorbed in supernatural beatitude. 

Thus ends the greatest composition of Gothe, a succession of 
dramatic or semi-dramatic scenes of the most opposite degrees 
of merit. The palpable weakness, not to say the absurdity, of 
the more visionary portions of the tragedy, seems to indicate 
that Gothe' s imagination got bewildered by the supernatural 
element of his subject; and his inability to master the miracu- 
lous part of the Faust-story, was increased by the effect of age. 
This, however, must not blind our eyes to the fact that in the 
earlier portions of this work are to be found some of the highest 
flights of poetry and genius which the German mind has at- 
tained. The main interest of the drama centres in the charac- 
ter of the philosophic Sceptic, with his fretful hankering for 
happiness, and his never- satisfied longing for a state of life 
in which his moral and spiritual wants may be satisfied as 
well as his physical desires. The scoffing Mephistopheles, the 
representative of unscrupulous force and cunning, and on the 
other hand the sweetheart of Faust, in her simplicity and inno- 
cence, are suitable accompaniments to the main personage. 
Among the most remarkable scenes of the drama we may men- 
tion the Easter morning in Leipzig, the garden scene where 
Faust and the Devil make love side by side, the catechizing of 
the Doctor by Gretchen, the murder of Valentine, and the 
prison scene which ends with the death of the heroine. Seve- 
ral of these passages are unsurpassed in beauty and dramatic 
effect ; and although the barrel-organ and the fiddle-bow have 
begun to assert their privilege of appropriating Gothe 1 s concep- 
tion, the lover of literature will, it is hoped, not rest content 
without turning to the pages of the German master, and feel- 
ing the touch of his inspired thought, which can never be more 



144 



GERMAN" LITERATURE. 



than guessed at from any operatic or other theatrical repre- 
sentation. 

Other Poems of Go the. —Among Gothe's non-dramatic com- 
positions the pastoral of (< Hermann and Dorothea" is the most 
distinguished. It relates in hexameter verse, and in nine 
short cantos, an incident of domestic life on the Ehine, and is 
connected with a contemporary event — the expulsion of some 
hundred Alsacian families from the soil of Eepublican Prance, 
about the year 1795. Hermann, the son of an inn-keeper in 
a village near the Ehine, observes the Alsacian emigrants pro- 
ceeding in a long train from their former homes in Prance into 
the interior of Germany, to look for shelter and other habita- 
tions. "While distributing presents and charities to his unfor- 
tunate countrymen, his attention is attracted by a tall and 
beautiful maiden, who walks in front of the cart which con- 
tained her less active friends and their chattels. Love with 
him sprang up, where they say it seldom arises — in compas- 
sion. After several inquiries about Dorothea's friends and 
another meeting with her by the side of a cool streamlet on the 
road, Hermann feels his former impressions confirmed, and 
selects her for his bride. He takes her home to his parents, 
whom he had previously persuaded to consent to his choice. 
The timid maiden is well received ; but as she is so poor, she 
fancies she is destined to become a maid-servant in her future 
home. Her generous admirer and his parents soon convince 
Dorothea that they consider her virtue and beauty superior to 
every other dowry, and the marriage of the happy pair con- 
cludes the poem. About the merits of the work it is enough 
to say that it is universally admired, and never found fault 
with. 

"Eeineke Puchs" is a free version of the old Low- German 
fable of the misdemeanors, the trial, the judgment, and the 
escape of Eeynard the Pox, who constantly cheated and ill- 
used the other beasts. It contains twelve cantos in hexameter 
verse, the fourth is the wittiest and the best. Here the fox 



FOTJETH PEEIOD — GOTHE. 



145 



makes his dying speech from the top of a ladder, while the rope 
is all but drawn round his neck. The rogue promises King 
JNoble to show him some treasures which are hidden at a dis- 
tance, and appeals so feelingly to the compassion of the Queen, 
that he is allowed to live. ISTo sooner is he at liberty than, by 
insinuating himself at court, he recovers his standing and his 
influence, and finds means to take cruel revenge on his ac- 
cusers. 

In his minor poems, ballads, and lyrics, Gothe is a formi- 
dable rival of Schiller, and in one species, philosophical short 
lines, * he has excelled that master. His best known ballads are 
" The Treasure-Digger," " Prometheus," " Faithful Eckart," 
"TheGodandtheBayadere," " The Bride ofCorinth,'' and "The 
Erl-Xing." The last-mentioned poem describes the ride of a 
father whose child is threatened with being kidnapped by a 
fairy king, and who on the end of his journey finds the boy 
dead in his arms. E. Schubert has set this poem to music. 

* As a specimen of this kind of composition, we will but adduce the 
few lines from his " AVilhelni Meister" : — 

" AVer nie sein Brot mit Thranen ass, 
AVer nie die kummervollen Kachte 
Auf seinem Bette weinend sass, 
Der kennt euch nicht, ihr himmlischen Machte. 

Ihr fiihrt in's Leben uns hinein, 

Ihr lasst den Armen schuldig werden, 

Dann iiberlasst ihr ihn der Pein, 

Denn alle Schuld racht sich auf Er den." 







146 



GERMAN LITERATURE, 



CHAPTER X. 

FIFTH PERIOD— RECENT WRITERS (1805-1865), 

Character of this Period. — "With the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century the literature of Germany entered into a new 
phase, characterizedby the introduction of polemic andpolitical 
tendencies — a change which was mainly due to the effects of the 
Erench Revolution. The comparative calm of the preceding era 
came to a close, when this social convulsion, after terrific out- 
bursts of popular fury, subsided into a military despotism. The 
ascendancy which Napoleon I. exercised on the Continent had 
the effect of breaking down in Germany a large portion, 
though not the whole, of the feudal institutions whfch had so 
long existed in that country. In 1 802, between two and three 
hundred petty princes and small republics were induced to re- 
sign their independence in favour of some forty larger states 
which remained standing ; and four years after the Germanic 
Empire came to an end, after an existence of about one thousand 
years — the then Emperor, Erancis II., having abdicated his 
title and imperial functions for the name of Emperor of 
Austria. Though the wars of 1813 and 1815 put an end to 
Erench power, and Germany came forth from the struggle 
without the loss of any territory, the collapse of feudalism was 
an accomplished fact ; and on the conclusion of the treaties of 
Yienna, Deutschland found itself reconstituted as a confederacy 
of thirty -nine states, with a senate of seventeen delegates at its 
head. But this political compromise seemed to give no lasting 
satisfaction ; and the German sovereigns, both great and small, 
soon became painfully aware that the enjoyment of their 
dynastic privileges was likely to be again seriously jeopardized. 
An opposition party formed itself from one end of the country 
to the other, and the desire for liberal institutions, national 
union, and abolition of petty governments became all but uni- 



FIFTH PERIOD — -RECENT WRITERS. 



147 



versal. "What the chances of this movement may be — whether 
the union of the Germans under a single government will be 
achieved, or territorial division as well as despotism retain 
their ancient hold on the people — it is not for us here to de- 
cide. But the literature of the last sixty years has been so 
powerfully influenced by the political struggles, that the 
modem epoch of both poetry and prose writing can only be 
considered from a semi-political point of view. Since the death 
of Schiller there was, perhaps, not a single writer who did not 
take one part or another in public questions ; and thus the 
modern authors of Germany present features very analogous to 
those of English literature in the reigns of the latter Stuarts, 
when the conflicting interests of "Whigs and Tories divided the 
British nation. The recent writers may, then, be arranged into 
two large groups, with distinct party designs, defined predi- 
lections, and unmistakeable antipathies. 

On one side stand the advocates of Conservatism. As such 
we may consider the coryphees of the Eomantic School — the 
two Schlegels, Novalis, Fouque, Tieck, and their friends — 
authors who proposed a return to the spirit of feudalism as 
the true means of improving literature, and who cultivated es- 
pecially the legendary style with success. To the same party 
belong the Ultra- Conservatives and the Ultramontane poets, 
such as Eedwitz, Schenkendorf, and Pyrker. 

On the opposite side are arrayed the friends of liberty and 
progress ; some who pursued their principles with more calm- 
ness — poets of a truly patriotic and national type, such as 
Korner, Uhland, Eiickert, and Count Platen ; others, of more 
republican tendencies, Radicals in politics, and usually also in 
religion, such as Herwegh, Freiligrath, Prutz, Kinkel, and 
Hoffmann. Among these, often the martyrs as well as the 
champions of reform, none approaches in talent the reckless 
H. Heine, who is at the same time the most violent and the 
most ingenious imp ersonifi cation of the revolutionary party? 
often called " Young Germany." This survey comprises only 



1-18 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



the poets of modern times. We reserve the recent historians 
and philosophers for a separate chapter. 

1 . The Romantics. — Eew terms in the history of literature are 
used with a greater latitude of meaning than that of " Roman- 
ticism" or "the Eomantic School." In Germany it has of late 
especially been applied to the school of the Schlegels, to Tieek, 
If ovalis, Chamisso, and others, who cultivated poetry and com- 
position for the sake of its fictions, and not for that of the 
truths it may contain. These writers valued fancy and inven- 
tion above all other qualities of style, and therefore indulged 
especially in tales and legendary writing, while they seldom 
produced anything of a more practical character. They were 
Conservatives in all questions bearing on religion and politics, 
either -because mediaeval society was their beau-ideal, and feu- 
dalism their favourite system, or else because they carried their 
unpractical tendency to a total abstention from all interference 
with political matters. The Romantics had many enemies, 
and were often attacked with ridicule and scorn. It was not 
only their excessive Conservatism which invited the comments 
of their contemporaries, but also their mode of writing ; espe- 
cially their sentimentalism, their dreamy style, their fondness 
of the supernatural and the unmanly lullaby tone of their 
Arabian Eights' tales. Their most declared enemies were 
Uhland, Count Platen, and Ruge. H. Heine, also, though 
once their admirer, attacked them. 

Augustus W. Schlegel (1767-1845), the greatest critic of 
Germany since the days of Lessing, is sometimes considered 
the originator of Romanticism ; while others look upon his 
younger brother, Frederick, or on JNTovalis, as the real author 
of this school. The Schlegels were sons of an eminent Luthe- 
ran clergyman in Hanover, and lived chiefly at Jena, where 
they contributed to the journals of Schiller, his "Horen" and 
his " Musen-Almanach." The principal work of Augustus is his 
"Lectures on Dramatic Art." In 1805 Madame de Stael 
availed herself of his assistance in her studies of the literature 



FIFTH PERIOD — -RECENT WRITERS. 



149 



of Germany, and hence the famous book of that French 
authoress, " De l'Allemagne," embodies many ideas which 
can be traced back to SchlegeL She often travelled with him, 
confided to him for a time the education of her children, and 
often received him as a visitor on her estate of Coppet. Shortly 
after the death of Madame de Stael, Schlegel was appointed 
to a professorship in Eonn. About that time the conversion 
of his brother to the Roman Catholic Church created conside- 
rable surprise ; and it was rumoured that Augustus leaned to 
the same side : that he sometimes decried Protestantism as un- 
poetical, there can be no doubt ; but towards the end of his 
life, in 1828, he publicly disclaimed any such pro-Catholic 
sympathies. He translated Calderon and the greater part of 
Shakspeare into German, and spread new and improved views 
on the drama. Admiration for the great English poet became 
a perfect mania with him and others, although they chiefly 
founded their high estimate of Shakspeare on the imaginative 
and theatrical elements in his drama, while they failed to ap- 
preciate the moral character of his tragedies in its true light. 
A. Schlegel has left several excellent ballads and lyrics ; but 
his drama of " Ion" is a failure. He also drew attention to 
Sanskrit language and literature. 

Frederick Schlegel (1772-1829) laboured for a long time 
with his elder brother in Jena ; but subsequently retired to 
Vienna, where he changed his religion, and became a zealous 
Catholic The love of the marvellous, founded on its attrac- 
tions to the imagination, seems to have been his ruling senti- 
ment. He lamented that the Reformation had proved fatal to 
the worship of the Yirgin, of angels, of saints, and similar ob- 
jects of popular adoration. Altogether his pleas for his favour- 
ite religion were not so much based on any positive historical 
convictions, whether concerning the origin of Christianity or 
the subsequent history of the Church, such as have usually 
guided converts in their decisions of such questions, as upon 
conclusions concerning matters of taste, His most remarkable 

o 2 



150 



GERMAN LITERATURE . 



production is his series of lectures on the " Philosophy of 
History, " in which he pleaded for the unity of the Church ; 
his novel of " Lucinda " is full of mysticism and sickly senti- 
mentality ; his work on the " Language and Wisdom of the 
Indians " contained many original views on the affinity of 
languages. 

JBaron von Sardenberg, surnamed Novalis (1772-1801), is 
another coryphee of the Eom antic School ; he was a man of 
original genius, and, but for his premature death, might have 
produced a more lasting impression than he did. The main 
object of his life and writings seems to have been to combat 
the Eationalism of his contemporaries. He wished to make 
religion once more the pivot of life and society ; and to this 
end recommended the institution of an independent and irre- 
sponsible hierarchy, as the fittest means of regenerating the 
morals of his age. He used to invite the two Schlegels to his 
estate, and was untiring in promoting their schemes of literary 
and theological reform. A great deal of his mysticism must 
be attributed to his physical constitution, which was unsound; 
he succumbed to consumption before he was thirty. His lite- 
rary remains are unimportant ; they consist of some aphorisms, 
a hymn on night, and a poetical romance treating of the me- 
diaeval bard, Heinrich von Ofterdingen. 

Ludwig Tiech (1773-1853) was the most prolific writer of 
the Romantic School. The late King of Prussia, Frederick 
William IV., who shared the tastes and opinions of Tieck, 
called him to Berlin, and selected him for his special court 
poet; besides executing with the elder Schlegel a translation 
of Shakspeare, he composed a large number of Oriental fairy 
tales and legendary stories ; his fanciful fictions about goblins, 
dwarfs, sprites, and dervishes, exercise a wonderful spell on 
the reader ; and the nursery, as well as the pantomime, are 
under the deepest obligations to the royal favourite. His 
stories — "Puss in Boots," " Abdailah with the Miraculous 
Eyesalve," " Bluebeard/' who killed his wives, and "Fortn- 



FIFTH PERIOD RECENT WRITERS. 151 

natus with the Magic Wand" — have alternately delighted and 
terrified the juveniles both in and out of Germany. His 
" Phantasus," his " Prince Zerbino," and his " Life of Saint 
Genevieve/' are all of the same description. Tieck also at- 
tempted the drama and the novel ; but his fondness of the fa- 
bulous and supernatural disqualified him for success in other 
departments. 

Count Arnim and Brentano are two other writers of tales. . 
"The Boy's Magic Horn" is their joint work ; it contains a 
collection of old German songs ; Brentano also composed many 
legends separately. Another Romantic writer, Chamisso, of a 
family of French extraction, is the author of " Peter Schlemihl," 
or the tale of the Shadowless Man, which has been translated 
into most foreign languages. A young emigrant to the Cape 
of Good Hope sells his shadow to the devil for an unlimited 
supply of money. But subsequent mishaps, arising from the 
absence of that needful appendage, make him rue his bargain, 
and he vainly endeavours to recover his shadow from its 
Satanic possessor. The most noteworthy fiction of Baron 
Fouque is his " Undine," a dreamy mediaeval love story. 
Amadeus Hoffman is a particularly gloomy and horrifying 
. goblin tale- writer.' His " Elixire des Teufels" and his 
" Nachtstucke," are those most spoken of among his stories. 
Musseus and Bettina von Arnim, the sister of Brentano, are 
other contributors to this effeminate species of composition. 
Bettina caused great sensation by her " Correspondence of 
Gothe with a child" (1835), a fictitious account of her ac- 
quaintance with that poet. 

2. Ultramontane Writers, and Ultra- Conservatives. — The 
claims of the Papacy and the divine right of princes have found 
in Germany a few eager votaries, more especially in the higher 
ranks of society. Opinions of this tendency were at first ad- 
vanced with greater moderation ; but in proportion as their 
victory became less likely, the zeal of their advocates seemed 
to increase, and often to run into excess. One of the earliest 



152 



GEEMAN LITERATUEE. 



poets who evinced a bias in favour of the Church and 
the emperors of the Middle Ages was Max Schenkendorf 
(1783-1819), a patriotic poet who had fought in the liberation 
war of 1 8 1 3 and 1814, and who combined with very conservative 
views in politics religions views of a corresponding character. 
These he expressed in his " Christian Poems/ ' and other 
lyrics, published in 1815. But the staunchest champion of 
Absolutism combined with Ultramontanism is the Bavarian 
poet, Oscar Redwitz, born in 1823. This author essayed 
various dramatic and other performances, such as "Sigelinde" 
and " The Doge of Yenice ;" but the greatest sensation was 
caused by his romance entitled, " Amaranth, " and written in 
rhymed short iambics. This poem, which appeared shortly 
after the disturbances of 1848, threw down the gauntlet to 
the whole Liberal and Radical party, stigmatizing their en- 
deavours as so many impious innovations, suggested by the 
spirit of evil, and tending to the subversion of virtue and 
order. The salvation of mankind seems to Eedwitz staked on 
the increase of kingly and sacerdotal power — a view which he 
inculcates under the guise of a mediaeval romance, of which 
the greater part consists of discourses between the heroine and 
her lover, and declamations against modern impiety. A tone 
of greater moderation prevails in the compositions of the Hun- 
garian bishop, Pyrher (1772-1842), who has written two 
epic poems in hexameter verse. The one is called Eudolfias, 
and refers to the founder of the Hapsburg dynasty, while the 
other celebrates Charles the Fifth's expedition against the 
pirates of Tunis, and bears the name of Tunisias. Two noble 
ladies have lately enlisted their talents on the same side — the 
Baroness Droste-HiilshofF, a Westphalian of noble family, of 
strong religious feeling, and considerable poetic endowments ; 
and the Countess Hahn-Hahn, who recently sought a refuge 
from the disappointments of a brief, but unhappy married life, 
in the seclusion of a Catholic nunnery, and has published 
many novels and travels, not to mention some versified effu- 



FIFTH PEEIOD RECENT WKITEKS. 



153 



sions, all of which are strongly tinctured with Ultra- Conser- 
vative views, and with a maudlin womanish despondency. 

3. Patriotic and Liberal Poets. — One of the most manly cha- 
racters whom Germany has seen in modern times was the 
heroic Theodor Komer (1791-1813), a poet soldier, who sealed 
with his blood the patriotic cause for which he fought. He 
belonged to a wealthy family in Saxony, and had as a boy 
known Schiller, who was a friend of his father. When the 
Eussian campaign terminated in 1812, and Germany rose like 
one man for the expulsion of the French, Korner had nearly 
grown up to manhood, and did not hesitate to enlist at Breslau 
in the Prussian army, although his own sovereign, the King of 
Saxony, at that time sided with Napoleon. He joined the 
volunteer band of Colonel Liitzow, a corps of hussars, who 
wore a black uniform, and a cap on which a sknll was de- 
picted, and who on enlisting took an oath not to give or re- 
ceive any quarter from the enemy. In this regiment, which 
consisted almost entirely of noblemen's sons, Korner behaved 
with signal bravery, and rose to the rank of an adjutant. He 
made numerous war songs, which inspired his comrades to 
deeds of valour, and resounded nightly at the bivouacs of the 
German army. His spirited lines on " Liitzow's Wild Chase" 
and his " Song of the Sword," containing a dialogue between 
a free soldier and his sword, are known to most lovers of 
German music, and well express by their martial notes the 
patriotic enthusiasm of the period in which they originated. 
The latter poem possesses a peculiar interest from the fact that 
it was written but a few minutes before its author met his 
death. About three weeks before the final struggle on the 
battle-field of Leipzig, Korner was staying with Lutzow's 
band, near Grabow, in Mecklenburg, when some French 
soldiers galloped down the road leading to that town, and 
pierced him by a stray shot fired at hazard into the thicket. 
His mourning companions buried him at the foot of an oak 
tree, which is still standing on the spot where he fell. Seldom 



154 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



has the grave closed over a youth more heroic and more 
earnest. His poetry was afterwards collected by his father, 
and published under the name of " Lyre and Sword." There 
is also a tragedy among Korner's relics entitled, " Zriny." 
It refers to the siege of a Hungarian town, which was saved 
from the Turks by the devotion of its commander. 

Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862) is, next to Heine, the most re- 
nowned poet of the post-classical era. He was a Swabian by 
birth, and prepared himself for the bar in Tubingen. In 1819 
Uhland became a member of the Wiirtemberg House of Depu- 
ties, and in 1848 he joined the National Parliament of Frank- 
fort. His voice was never heard except in behalf of freedom 
and progress, and he enjoyed up to his death the universal re- 
spect of all parties. As a poet he has written some exquisite 
ballads, some of which are inferior to none of Schiller's or 
Gothe's. His " Minstrel Curse, " " Young Eowland the Shield- 
Bearer, 7 ' his poetic biography of Eberhard, surnamed Eustle- 
beard from his bushy hair, an old Count of "Wurtemberg, are 
brief but finished compositions. It is to be regretted that this 
able poet did not try his hand at some more lengthy perfor- 
mance. 

Arndt (1769-1860) is another very successful author of pa- 
triotic songs, such as the popular hymn of the Germans — " "Was 
ist des Deutschen Yaterland?' 5 and his spirited lines — " Der 
Gott der Eisen wachsen liess, der wollte keine Knechte." This 
poet's life was in harmony with his writings. During the 
short time of Erench ascendancy Arndt fled to Sweden from 
the persecution of the Erench police. But, though in exile, 
he found means to assist Minister Yon Stein in organizing the 
popular rising against Napoleon. The Prussian Government 
repaid him with ingratitude. In 1819 Arndt was dismissed 
from his professorship in Bonn, for having written in too libe- 
ral strains, and reminded the Prussian dynasty that it owed 
its preservation to the exertions and the good-will of the Ger- 
man people. He recovered his dignity in 1840. 



PIPTH PEEIOD EECENT WEJTEES. 



155 



Friedrich RiXclcert, born in 1789, and still alive, is remark- 
able for patriotic songs, and for labours in Oriental literature. 
Under the former category the most important of his produc- 
tions are the martial odes entitled " Geharnischte Sonnette," 
written before 1814. Subsequently he turned to Sanskrit, 
Hindustanee, and Arabic poetry. He translated into German 
verse a portion of the " Mahabharata," namely, the story of j^al 
and Damajanti. The " Metamorphoses of Abu Seid" are taken 
from the Persian. Eiickert also attempted more independent 
imitations of the wisdom of the Erahmins, which are charac- 
terized by the same excellencies and defects as the Indian 
poetry generally, contemplative elevation of style, interspersed 
with word- quibbling, and spoiled by lengthiness. His drama- 
tic performances have met with but little favour. 

Count Platen (1796-1825) is the Aristophanes of German}'. 
If not always equal in merit to that Greek poet, he is still his 
follower as far as he can. Platen transferred into his German 
imitations the style, the wit, the spirit, and the very metre of 
the Greek comedian ; and as Aristophanes ridiculed Socrates 
and Cleon, so he chastised the follies of the school of Schlegel 
and Tieck. In his " Ominous Dinner-Pork " and in his 
"Eomantic (Edipus" he has very happily exposed the affec- 
tation and unmanliness of Eomanticism. Platen has also ex- 
hibited his talents in smaller poems, both lyric and epic. On 
the whole, however, his poetry is more eulogised than read. 
This is either owing to the too learned and artificial style and 
aim of his compositions, or else to the circumstance that he 
spent the greater part of his life abroad. Platen's favourite 
resort was Sicily. Here, in Syracuse, he lived and died; and 
his Italian host inscribed his tombstone with the following 
curious piece of Latin : — "Ingenio Germanus, forma Grsecus. 
]N"ovissimum posteritatis exempliim." 

We shall fitly class with these poets two Austrian bards, 
who, though unequal in merit and popularity to any of the 
writers before mentioned, are no mean masters of poetic song, 



156 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



and deserve to be noticed all the more, as they lived in a 
country which for centuries past had become almost an utter 
stranger to literary composition. The first of these is Baron 
Lenau, an elegiac and epic poet of a rather melancholy dispo- 
sition, which resulted in fits of insanity in 1844. He has 
written some dramas on Savonarola and on Faust. The other 
is Anastasius GriXn, whose real name is Count Auersperg, a 
writer of political poems, in which he expresses his sympathies 
for Poland, and his anxiety for the progress of liberty. Grun's 
chief works are— " The Walk of a Poet of Vienna;'' " The 
Buins," in which he descants on the destruction of Pompeii 
and other cities; and an epic on " The Last Knight," which 
means the chivalrous Maximilian I. These two poets have 
the same defect — excess of imagery, and too flowery language; 
but their Liberalism is all the more surprising when we con- 
sider their rank and their birthplace. 

4. Advanced Liber ah anil Republicans. — As Germany is at pre- 
sent passing through a period of revolutionary agitation, it is 
but natural that a large portion of her recent literature should 
display revolutionary tendencies. Both in their writings and 
their lives the German republicans of this age exhibit symp- 
toms of the convulsed state of her society. The majority of 
them began as champions of liberty, and ended as refugees — 
compelled to exhale their native ardour afar from the country 
which they for a time had lightened up with the blaze of 
their patriotism. 

George Herwegh, born in 1817, is a poet of this description, 
and a representative of the party of Young Germany. He 
was a native of Stuttgardt, and educated at Tubingen, but has 
lived for the last twenty-five years either in Switzerland or 
Paris. About the close of the reign of Frederick William III. 
this author published a volume of political poems, under the 
significant title of " Poems addressed to the Dead by One of 
the Living." As the reader will easily guess, it was "king- 
deluded" Germany and her inhabitants who were to be roused 



EJPTH PEKIOD— EECEXT WBITEES. 157 

from the sleep of the defunct. The poetic enthusiast did not 
much disguise his appeal to the people, but exhorted them to 
resist the oppression of their princes, and to follow in the 
wake of popular freedom and national unity as their future 
guiding- stars. The book contains many good verses, and the 
feeling of the public was in full accord with the tone which 
it adopted. At that time Germany was all on tiptoe with the 
anticipation of sweeping reforms. The late King Frederick 
William IV., on ascending the throne, in 1840, had induced 
the people by his brilliant promises to hope for an immediate 
fulfilment of their political expectations. Tor the space of 
nearly two years this delusion lasted. Meanwhile Herwegh's 
poems went through seven successive editions; and in 1842, 
when he made a tour through the country, he was received in 
every town with public ovations on a magnificent scale. As, 
however, the desired reforms were not forthcoming, the people 
became more and more impatient, and one among the dissatis- 
fied was Herwegh himself. In this state of mind he requested 
an audience from the Prussian sovereign, who had repeatedly 
expressed his delight at his poems, hoping he might, by a 
personal interview with the King, obtain some promise of a 
more liberal policy. He was well received, and quietly per- 
mitted to urge the views which he entertained on his royal 
interlocutor. Leaving Berlin, he addressed, from Konigsberg, 
a letter to the King, reiterating in still stronger terms his 
former appeals and admonitions in behalf of more enlarged 
principles of government. But great was Herwegh's surprise, 
when a few days after he received from the police an official 
notice to quit the territories of Prussia, and never to return. 
He went to Paris, where a marriage with a wealthy lady im- 
proved his condition. In 1849 he made an armed invasion on 
the soil of Germany, during the Baden insurrection, but met 
with no success. His literary performances since 1840 have 
been insignificant. 

p 



158 



GERMAN LITERATURE, 



F. Freiligrath, born in 1810, was a merchant in Bhenisli 
Prussia, and wrote some political poems of a liberal tendency, 
which procured for him a pension of a very small amount from 
the King. However, Herwegh and other political partizans of 
Freiligrath remonstrated with him on the impropriety of ac- 
cepting such a gift, and denounced the spirit of servility which 
it implied, and he thought fit to decline the continuance of the 
favour bestowed upon him. This brought him into disrepute 
with the court party, and he became still more obnoxious to 
the Government on the outbreak of the disturbances of 1848. 
The result was that Freiligrath left Prussia, and took up his 
residence in London, where he had previously entertained 
commercial relations with several German firms. His poetry 
is remarkable for the richness of its rhymes and the beauty of 
its imagery. 

Hoffmann von Fallersleben, born in 1798, was long a pro- 
fessor of literature in Breslau, and has great merits as a dis- 
coverer of ancient German literary remains. He is also the 
composer of many exquisite popular songs and political verses. 
Unfortunately his Liberalism was too advanced for the Prussian 
Government, and in 1842 he was ignominiously deprived of 
his post and salary as a university teacher. He wandered long 
about the country without any fixed occupation. At last he 
became a journalist at Weimar, and subsequently obtained an 
appointment as librarian in Corvey. 

Professor G. Kinhel, born in 1815 5 is the author of " Otto 
Der Schiitz," a chivalrous romance, as well as of other poems. 
He embraced republican views ; and not being very guarded 
in his public conduct, especially while he was a member of 
the first Prussian Assembly of Deputies in 1848, he was 
found guilty of political misdemeanors, and imprisoned at 
Bpandau. After a captivity of some years he effected his 
escape from the fortress in an almost miraculous manner. He 
has since lived in London. 



FIFTH PERIOD RECENT WRITERS. 



159 



Among the other adherents of advanced Liberalism, R. 
Prutz, born in 1818, and K. Gutzlcow, born in 1811, deserve 
mention. The former satirized the philosopher Schelling in 
his witty comedy, "Diepolitische "Wochenstube." "W. Menzel, 
the historian, formerly belonged to the same party, but has 
changed his views for Conservatism. 



160 



GEEMAN LITEBATUKE . 



CHAPTER XL 

CONTINUATION OF FIFTH PERIOD— H. HEINE. 

The most gifted poet of Germany since the days of Schiller 
and Gothe is H. Heine, whose fame bids fair to obscure the 
names of all his literary contemporaries. 

Heinrich Heine (1799-1856), was born in Biisseldorf, on 
the Rhine, and used to call himself the first man of his century, 
because his birthday had been near to the first of January, 
1800. His father was a Jew ; his mother a Christian, and the 
daughter of a physician of the name of Geldern. As his father 
lived but few years after Heine's birth, the widowed mother 
sent her elder boy — for she had a younger son, called Gusta- 
vus — to the gymnasium of the town, and let him subsequently 
engage in mercantile occupations, either in Diisseldorf or in 
Hamburg, where Heine had a very rich uncle, the banker 
Solomon Heine. Probably the latter was not at first so nig- 
gardly to his nephew as he afterwards became. At any rate, 
as the stripling showed great talent for literary occupation, he 
was provided with ample means to procure an academic edu- 
cation. He visited in succession the Universities of Bonn, 
' Berlin, and Gottingen. In both the latter places he made 
himself notorious by his riotous behaviour in the lecture hall. 
Here he introduced the license of the theatre in expressing his 
disapprobation whenever his professors uttered anything un- 
palatable to his opinions on politics and religion ; for at an 
early age Heine had embraced views of the most advanced 
kind on each of these subjects. At Gottingen he knew Men- 
zel and Massmann, both of whom he cruelly satirized in his 
subsequent writings. Massmann, odious to Heine for his Con- 
servatism, challenged him once to a duel, but Heine showed 
no inclination to back his opinions with his rapier. If he had 
some enemies, he also had many friends among the more 



FIFTH PEEIOD HEINE. 



161 



liberal portion of his collegiate acquaintances, and these were 
Heine's warm admirers, on account of the extraordinary talent 
displayed in his juvenile compositions, some of which appeared 
as early as 1823. In Berlin, he heard Hegel, and knew 
Yarnhagen von Ense, a Prussian liberal of rank and station, 
who had married a highly- cultivated Jewess, of the name of 
Eahel. To Varnhagen, Heine dedicated his first volume of 
verses. Two years later he finished his law lectures, and re- 
turned to Diisseldorf. For some time past Heine had pro- 
fessed himself a Protestant, and he even thought fit to make a 
public renunciation of Judaism when he was about twenty- 
one. This step has been criticized as an act of senseless 
hypocrisy. No doubt Heine would have made just as good 
a Jew as a Protestant, with the sort of religion or irreligion 
which he believed in. His habits of self-derision, and his 
humorous jokes about this as on every other step of his life, 
fully deprived him of the last shadow of credit for sincerity or 
earnestness in adopting his new creed. He used to say that 
his circumstances did not permit him to abide by the religion 
of the Eothschilds, because he possessed neither their purse 
nor their credit. But we should not attach too much impor- 
tance to such lon-mots ; the sardonic smile was at all times 
inseparable from Heine's countenance. We may also suppose 
his Israelitish brethren would insist on his attendance at the 
synagogue, and would visit any lukewarmness on his part 
with threats of excommunication and other modes of public 
exposure, while the German Protestant Church leaves to its 
members a considerable latitude of action and belief, and 
makes Christians responsible to nobody except their own 
consciences. 

Be this as it may, Heine, now a Christian in name, began 
to travel on the completion of his academic course. He vi- 
sited especially the North of Italy and England, and on 3iis 
return embodied his impressions of these two countries in his 
" Eeisebilder " (1826). This book produced the greatest sen- 

r 2 



162 



GEEMAN LITEEATTTEE. 



sation, not only by its sketches and criticisms, and by its 
audacious remarks on eminent men — as, for instance, on Count 
Platen — but more especially by its daring mode of dealing -with 
politics and theology; bat the prose style which it employed 
was not the least novelty in the work. Heine's manner as a 
prosaist may be described as a mixture of humour, audacity, 
and coquetry. Fanciful and pathetic passages are succeeded 
by volleys of irony and sarcasm. Sometimes his jests are 
merely the effervescence of youthful gaiety and mirth; at 
other times they proceed from extreme Radicalism in matters 
of State and Church, and they often betray a deep-rooted 
cynicism of moral sentiment. His turns are always forcible, 
and come upon the reader with a certain explosive suddenness ; 
they never tire, and usually surprise ; he is gentle and sym- 
pathetic, and again wanton and impertinent. In short, Heine 
combines Shelley's impassioned enthusiasm and glow of feel- 
ing with Lord Byron's ribald joke and contemptuous sneer, — » 
while he is more playful than either. One of the most objec- 
tionable traits in Heine's writings, which was also attended 
with serious consequences to the author, was the unmeasured 
abuse which he dared to bestow on friend and foe. It is pain- 
ful to observe how often and how unnecessarily Heine descends 
into the arena of personalities. As one flagrant instance we 
will but mention his conduct to his uncle. " The august re- 
lative," as Heine styled him, had begun to withhold his 
cheques from his poetical protege ; he probably observed in 
him a lamentable tendency to dissipation and prodigality. 
Heine resented this measure, and, with -his characteristic 
blindness to both personal interest and public propriety, lam- 
pooned the worthy banker in a German journal. The reason 
which he assigned for his uncle's backwardness in forwarding 
remittances was, that Solomon Heine despised poetry as a low 
and unprofitable occupation, and that he thought literary merit 
the very last road to competency and position. Tirades such 
as these were not likely to improve his uncle's good- will 



FIFTH PEKI0D HEINE. 



163 



towards him; and thus for years to come the ill-advised 
young man found himself abandoned by a relative who, with 
all his surliness and love of economy, might so easily have 
shielded him from want, and saved his genius from the dreary 
prostitution to which it often became a victim. On his return 
from his travels Heine received another blow, which affected 
him in a far more sensitive quarter than his purse. A young 
lady, whose parents resided either in Diisseldorf or in the 
neighbourhoood of the Ehine, declined the continuance of his 
addresses for those of a more favoured suitor ; and Heine found 
himself jilted, nay, almost ignominiously discarded, to make 
room for a rival who had none of his own brilliant talents, 
however much he might be Heine's superior in other respects. 
His disappointment has left a broad track in the earlier part of 
his writings, where she is alluded to under the name of Mary, 
though her real name was Evelina von Gueldern ; she was a 
relation of Heine by his mother's side. There is no reason to 
discredit his sincerity when he asserts that his flame continued 
to glow on like a smouldering fire, beneath layers of irony, 
libertinage, and dissimulation. The earnestness of his attach- 
ment forms quite a redeeming feature in his character as well 
as his poetry. Unfortunately, it became almost a caricature 
in a man like Heine. When he had laughed and sneered 
enough about it, he pleaded it as an excuse for his irregular 
conduct ; still, at the age of fifty, and later, when he lay on 
his sick bed, as an emaciated old man, and agonized by the 
paroxysms of fever, he used to refer to this first love with the 
same serio-comic solemnity which was his second nature. He 
dated from it the beginning of his disasters. 

In 1827 Heine published his " Buch der Lieder," a volume 
of poetry which may safely challenge comparison with the 
greatest, performances of the lyric Muse in any country and 
in any age. After his juvenile productions, some of which aiv 
of considerable merit, there comes a cycle of love ditties, in- 
scribed " Die Heimkehr," which are quite inimitable in their 



164 



GERMAN LITEEA TUBE . 



glow of feeling and naive simplicity. We cannot criticize 
them better than by inserting a few lines, which we select 
nearly at random, and which are perhaps none of the best :— 

" Madchen mit dem rothen Miindchen, 
Mit den Aeuglein suss und klar, 
Du mein liebes, kleines Madchen, 
Deiner denk ich immerdar. 

u Lang ist heut der Winterabend, 
Und ich mochte bei dir sein, 
Bei dir sitzen, mit dir schwatzen, 
Im vertrauten Kammerlein." 

The choicest odours of poetry are those which exhale from 
the blossoms of affection that never ripened into fruit. Though 
the unfortunate author of these Lieder succumbed to the 
diseases of the flesh, and to the more baneful diseases of the 
soul — to religious and moral despondency — his passion for his 
Maria lives — "spirat adhuc amor, vivuntque calores commissi 
fidibus " — and remains inscribed in grand and indelible charac- 
ters on the page of literature, delighting the readers of future 
ages by their warming and genuine touches. 

The cycle of dithyrambic odes, a Die Nordsee," is if possi- 
ble superior to the preceding. Heine had profited by his 
sojourn in Hamburg, and turned his acquaintance with the 
sea to a wonderful account. His descriptions of the shore and 
the shingle, the sailor's life and the mermaids, the storm and 
the harbour, baffle every encomium, and can appropriately be 
compared only to the graphic lines of Homer, whom Heine 
had evidently read very carefully. The poetic describers of 
the ocean, since Heine's times, whether in England, France, 
or Germany, are either his imitators, or greatly his inferiors. 
But there are in this collection of odes other gems of equal 
value. There are grand touches of ancient mythology, along 
with glances at Norse sagas ; there is a poetic conception of the 
religion of love, joined with allusions to his unhappy passion; 
besides pictures of German towns, and scenes of the life and 



FIFTH PEBIOD HEINE. 



165 



customs which prevail at German hearths. Here and there a 
slur on established religion comes to cast in its defiant tones, 
though the " Euch der Lieder" preserves poetic decorum 
better than other works of the same author. One brief quota- 
tion will give the best idea of Heine's manner and exuberant 
imagination. It will also be instructive, as throwing some 
light on the kind of philosophy which he professed. The 
- dithyramb is inscribed " Questions," and stands near the end 
of the volume : — 

" By the sea, the desert, nightly sea, 
There stands a youth, 

His heart all sorrowing, his head all doubting; 

And with moody lips, he asks the billows — 

' solve me the riddle of life, 

That old, tormenting riddle 

O'er which full many a pate hath pondered — 

Heads in hieroglyphic bonnets, 

Heads in turbans and tasselled caps, 

Periwig heads, and a thousand others, 

Poor, distracted heads of men ! 

Tell me : What meaneth man ? 

Whence did he come ? Whither doth he go ? 

Who dwelleth yonder on radiant stars r* 

4 ' The waves roll on their ancient murmur, 
The winds their blasts, the clouds their chase ; 
The stars look on, unheeding and cold, 
And a fool waits for an answer/' 

It was very fortunate for Heine that he found in Hoffmann 
and Campe, booksellers in Hamburg, some publishers who were 
beyond the reach of an Austrian or Prussian police ; otherwise 
the publication of many of his works would have been an im- 
possibility. The citizens of a German republic are not so sum- 
marily dealt with as the subjects of monarchical states ; and as 
any passages which might have offended even a Hamburg cen- 
sorship were removed by Hoffmann's scissors, the sale and cir- 
culation of Heine's works went on for years without any inter* 



166 GEEMAN LITER ATUEE. 

ference. However, his audacity seemed only to increase with 
the impunity which it enjoyed, and from attacks on private 
individuals he proceeded to sallies on German princes. Heine 
felt that his stay in Germany was becoming more precarious 
from day to day. Already representations had been made to 
the Senate of Hamburg, when at last that effete and tardy po- 
litical machine, the Frankfort Bund, gathered all its strength 
to launch a sentence of outlawry against the unceremonious 
clerider of its crowned members. Long before this ban reached 
him, Heine had bid for ever farewell to the soil of his father- 
land ; and Paris, where the revolution of July had just opened 
the floodgates of social reform — the city of fashion, pleasure, 
and frivolity — was from 1831 till his death the refuge of the Ger- 
man exile. The picture of his life darkens from that day. 
His better genius seems to leave the poet, and the spirit of evil 
to clutch his soul more firmly. Among other papers, for which 
he at that time became a correspondent, the Augsburg " All- 
gemeine Zeitung" received from his pen a series of spirited 
articles on French politics and French art. These he after- 
wards collected, and accompanied by essays on Germany and 
German writers, in his " Salon." The vigour and elegance of 
his style, indeed, did not seem to have suffered, but passion 
and free-thinking blinded his eyes more and more as he grew 
older. His treatise on the Eomantic School contains a witty 
account of that class of writers and their tendencies, although 
the two Schlegels are rather roughly handled. Heine repre- 
sents Augustus as a literary fop, and Frederick as a bigot. He 
likewise attempted to delineate the philosophy of Germany, 
which essay he also published in French. According to him, 
such men as Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, were erudite 
mystics, good for nothing but to trample on the religion of 
their countrymen. He makes them appear anxious above all 
to subvert the established beliefs, and talks of their learning 
or their obscurity as a veil for disguising their heresies. No 
doubt these philosophers were incidentally unorthodox, and 



FIFTH PEEIOD — HEINE. 



167 



groped in the dark, like many others before and after them ; 
but it required the partiality of a Heine to construe their re- 
searches into so many speculative manifestoes against Chris- 
tianity. In the mean time he did not neglect poetical compo- 
sition. His " NeueLieder," though not equal to the " Buch 
der Lieder," still contain some masterly lines. Unfortunately 
the cynical and irreligious tendencies of the author are laid 
bare with greater effrontery than in his previous book of songs. 
Eepublican opinions and sarcastic remarks on German poten- 
tates abound in this volume. The life of a refugee has, as a 
matter of necessity, many elements in it which sour his tem- 
per and provoke his bile, even though he be less satirical by 
nature than a Heine. But the frequency and virulence with 
which he indulged in such diatribes on Germany in general 
provoked at last an old friend of his to administer to him a 
stern rebuke. Ludwig Borne, a German republican, a refugee 
residing in Paris, and a converted Jew, like Heine, denounced 
his verses and articles as indicating a painful want of patriot- 
ism, and as evidences of very bad taste on the part of their 
author ; all the more so as they were published in the midst of 
a city and among a people where many were but too glad to 
get hold of any scandal or piece of irony which might serve to 
the defamation of their trans-Ehenane neighbours. Heine re- 
sented this reproof with his wonted acrimony. Begardless alike 
of the ties of friendship and the considerations of generosity, 
he overwhelmed Borne, a poor penny-a-liner, and a dying in- 
valid, with such unmeasured abuse as to cause the disgust of 
the Parisian no less than the German public. For nearly a 
year this warfare lasted with unabated fury, when Borne sank 
on his deathbed, worn out by dejection and privation. Heine 
had the satisfaction of seeing his adversary silenced ; but his 
heartless couduct towards his former friend left on his reputa- 
tion a stain so dark and deep as to alienate from him the last 
of his admirers. The press of Germany had all along taken 
part with Borne, and now joined in one common outcry against 



168 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



Heine. It was rumoured, and actually found true, that he 
drew a pension from the French Government. The su m of mo- 
ney which he received from the exchequer of Louis Philippe 
is stated to have amounted to nearly £100 per annum, and to 
have ceased only with the Orleans dynasty. One Taschereau 
revealed these circumstances in 1848. Speculation is at a loss 
how to account for the motives of this donation. Was it sim- 
ply an act of munificence, by which the King of the French 
wished to honour merit even in a foreigner ? or was it a bait 
for the coveted Rhenish provinces, which Heine represented 
as a native of Diisseldorf, and as a political exile of philo- G allic 
sentiments ? The question has not yet been answered. 

During all this time Heine was leading a life not in any 
way calculated to increase the respect which his poetical gifts 
ought to have secured. In 1 843 he married a French griseite 
with whom he had been living for some time. It is said that 
the union was the result of an accident. Heine had to fight 
a duel, and wished to secure to his female companion the little 
property which he possessed on starting for the rendezvous. 
In the following year he made a stealthy tour to Hamburg, 
where he met the only person who remained attached to him 
throughout his life, his aged mother. Of this journey, of his 
interview with his mother, and the state of Germany in 1 844, 
he gave a scurrilous and satirical account in his " Deutschland, 
ein Wintermarchen,'' a series of twenty-seven poems, full of 
the most biting irony, and spirited though not always refined 
attacks on the most eminent persons in Germany, both in the 
literary and the political world. It was probably not without 
difficulty that Heine twice crossed the frontier, and managed to 
elude the vigilance of the Prussian police. Soon after his re- 
turn to Paris he was attacked by a disease in his spine, the 
forebodings of which had harassed him long before. He re- 
sorted to the mineral waters of Cauterets, in Spain, to restore 
his shattered health. "While staying in the Pyrenees, he com- 
pleted his satirical poem of "Atta Troll," which had been 



FIFTH PERIOD* — HEINE. 



169 



sketched as early as 1841. The hero of this satire is a Spanish 
bear, who is forced to bow and dance before mankind in order 
to get his living ; he manages to escape from his keeper, and 
is killed by Lascaro, the guide and travelling companion of 
Heine. On Atta Troll's death a place is promised to him in 
Walhalla, the Eatisbon collection of statues of eminent per- 
sons; and the famous epitaph which Xing Ludwig of Bavaria is 
-upposed to put on his tomb is given by Heine in the exact 
style of that illustrious personage. For the last five or six 
years of his life the poet never left his bed. His last collection 
of satirical ballads, " Eomancero," contains the wittiest refe- 
rences to contemporaneous events and characters, and is quite 
equal to his earlier satirical writings. After enduring excru- 
ciating bodily pain, he died, at Paris, in 1856. Few friends 
attended his burial. 

Great as were the faults of this writer, his misfortunes and 
his talents were still greater. A large part of his trouble was 
no doubt due to his conduct, but much must be set down to 
the peculiar circumstances under which he was born and edu- 
cated, as well as to the generation in which he lived. It was 
the misfortune of Heine that all the social ties which rivet man 
to his fellow-creatures, and fix his energies in a given direc- 
tion, were in his case early severed by an evil fatality. He was 
unsuccessful in his attachment; he had to leave his co-reli- 
gionists; he quarrelled with an opulent relative; he was exiled 
from his country; he was disavowed by his political partisans; 
he had little hope or faith to comfort his soul ; he found no 
genial friend to cheer his home. Why need we dwell on his 
failings, when we reflect how heavily they were atoned for ? 
Eather let us remember that the sorrows of this poet have re- 
sulted in the profit of literature. Without his mishaps, Heine 
would have given us none of the bad, but also none of the 
good, which he has left behind him ; for the one could not 
exist except in conjunction with the other. An apostate and 
an exile, he was fitted before others to denounce crown-boa ring 



170 



GEEMAN LITEEA.TUKE. 



arrogance, to expose ecclesiastical imposture, to scourge pri- 
vileged folly, and to break every compact with cant and fawn- 
ing. That in so doing he often overshot his mark, and allowed 
private passion to blind his judgment, is common to Heine 
with all other satirists, and can detract only a portion, but not 
the whole, of his merits. Let those, then, condemn his writ- 
ings who imagine social regeneration could be brought about 
without ferment or agitation, or who can fancy the literature 
of a revolutionary age unleavened by bitter satire. It is in 
Germany herself, and in her moral and political condition, 
that we must seek the clue to the failings of the latest and 
greatest of her stepsons. 



FIFTH PERIOD RECENT PHILOSOPHERS AND HISTORIANS. 171 



CHAPTER XII. 

CONCLUSION. 

l PHILOSOPHERS AND HISTORIANS OF THIS AND PRECEDING PERIOD. 

Philosophy — As the literary fame of Germany is in a high 
degree due to her philosophical productions, a brief notice of 
these seems indispensable in an outline such as the present. 
The German school of philosophy has frequently attracted the 
notice of Englishmen, especially its earlier stage, up to Kant 
and Eichte. This is sufficiently attested by the labours of 
Coleridge, Southey, Carlyle, and in recent times by those of 
Lewes and Professor Mansel. Less favourable was the atten- 
tion bestowed on its subsequent phases. The doctrines of the 
Hegelian School and its followers were but little appreciated 
in England, and have met with more obloquy than praise from 
the few whom they seemed to interest. Hot only the difficul- 
ties that were met with in comprehending their meaning, and 
the intricacy of style and thought, but also the novelty and 
the startling character of many of their views, deterred people 
from a fuller investigation of the post-Kantian movement. On 
the whole, it would be vain to deny that the German concep- 
tion of the aim as well as the method of philosophy differs 
entirely from that adopted in England. Indeed, one might 
more appropriately compare the German School to the philo- 
sophers of ancient Greece than put them on a level with a 
Bacon or a Locke, a Hobbes or a Stewart. If in England 
ethical philosophy forms the chief point, in Germany it is 
metaphysics or ontology. Again, if English philosophy is 
empirical, that of Germany is speculative. The former pro- 
ceeds by generalizations of observation and experience, whilf 
the latter essays progression by guessing at ultimate truths. 
Hence, the two Schools are at war from the outset. The Ger- 



172 



GERMAN LITEKATUKE. 



man sages reproach the English with being too practical and 
utilitarian, and in general with remaining below the mark in 
their solutions of philosophic problems, while the English in- 
quirers, with equal consistency, tax the German school with 
too daring, and therefore fruitless, attempts in their intuitions, 
and accuse them of o^shooting the mark in their speculations. 
To essay theosophy, or to speak of real existence ; to describe 
the soul of man, or to tell his destiny ; to venture an opinion 
on the creation or the end of things, no matter if well or if ill, 
is held wisdom in Germany, and folly in England. The fear 
of failure is the bane of English philosophy, just as the hope 
of success flushes the pages of German speculators. 

The theosophic tendency of Teutonic philosophy was illus- 
trated as early as the beginning of the seventeenth century, 
by the illiterate Jacob Bohme (1575-1624), a mystical shoe- 
maker of Gorlitz, in Saxony. This meditative artisan com- 
posed a book, entitled " Aurora," in which he thought he had 
afforded a new insight into the interior workings of nature, 
and had descried better than divines had done the attributes 
of the Supreme Being. The poor cobbler was a devout reader 
of the Bible, and used to found part of his theorems on the 
page of inspiration. The most remarkable feature of his spe- 
culations is his putting Emanation in the place of Creation, 
and an evolutionary principle in lieu of the free personal agent 
of the Christian religion. There is no doubt that he was ac- 
tuated by very good intentions, and delivered his doctrines in 
perfect good faith ; he believed in Christianity as firmly as he 
believed in his speculations, and thought the one the true ex- 
planation of the other. But the pastor of Gorlitz took offence 
at his teaching ; he repeatedly admonished Bohme to abjure 
his heresies, and, above all, to write no more. "When this had 
not the desired effect, he urged the burgomaster to interfere. 
To avert the wrath of Heaven, the mystical shoemaker was 
bidden to depart from his native town. Poor Bohme shook 
the dust off his feet at the gates of Gorlitz, and retired to con- 



FIFTH PERIOD RECENT PHILOSOPHERS A.ND HISTORIANS. I To 

cealment in Dresden ; but his retreat was still haunted by his 
former visions ; and as friends were not wanting, not only : 
encourage him in his apparently. pious labours, but to support 
him with funds and means for printing new books, he added 
to his former work another on " True Penitence," and, lasth 
one on " True Composure of Mind." 

Learned philosophy commenced in Germany with Leibnitz 
(1646-1716), a Hanoverian, who is not less famous as a ma- 
thematician, and even as a divine, than he is by his specula- 
tions. He disputed Newton's claims to priority in the inven- 
tion of the calculus ; he also exerted himself very strenuously 
for the reconciliation of the Protestant and Roman Catholic 
Churches ; his philosophical treatises were written in Latin 
and in Erench; the principal is his "Theodicee." Two peculiar 
views are to be found among the theories of this book; the 
one is the author's theory on matter, or the atomic doctrine, 
according to which all things are compounds of monads or ele- 
mental atoms, which preserve union by a certain " pre-esta- 
blished harmony," or chemical disposition, which inheres in 
the atoms ; the other is the optimistic doctrine, or the assump- 
tion that God did create this world in the most perfect state 
when things came into existence, or that, to speak with Pope, 
" "Whatever is, is right." To combine this principle with the 
existence of moral and physical evil, is the object of his " Theo- 
dicee." The principal disciple of Leibnitz was C. Wolf (1 679- 
1754) a Professor of Halle, who first adopted German as the 
language of his manuals and lectures ; he was a very syste - 
matic logician on the principles of Leibnitz, and has latterly 
been eulogized by Professor Mansel and other learned Oxoni- 
ans, who have not hesitated to borrow some of his antiquated 
terms and canons, and adopt them in their own logical disqui- 
sitions. 

Then came the immortal Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the 
greatest philosopher of Germany, the son of a saddler, and a 
native as well as a professor of Konigsberg, which town he 

Q2 



174 



GERMAN LITERATURE, 



never left all his life. Sir ~W. Hamilton has brought forward 
reasons to show that Kant's ancestors had been of Scottish 
descent, and there is a document in Kant's handwriting which 
seems to confirm that supposition. The greatest production 
of this author is his " Kritik der reinen Vernunft," or Critique 
of Pure Beason, although the two other Critiques — the one on 
Art (for Urtheilskraft may be freely translated by ^Esthetics, 
or by Art), the other on Ethics (" Praktische Vernunft"), are also 
remarkable compositions. His logic was edited from his lec- 
tures by Jasche, in 1800. The style of Kant is clear and con- 
nected ; and although in his metaphysical dissertations a certain 
amount of obscurity is almost inseparable from their subject, 
there are always good sense and sound information enough in 
his expositions to repay the trouble of any student who will 
give him his attention. The design of Kant's philosophy was 
to criticize the limits of the human intellect. All previous 
philosophers pursued, according to him, too dogmatical a mode 
of speculating. They discussed, adopted, or rejected tenets, 
without stopping to inquire whether and how Ave can come to 
know anything at all. To determine this, that is to say, how 
we attain knowledge on any subject, is the task which Kant's 
Critique sets for itself. The result he arrived at is, that man 
can only discover the appearances of things, and only so far is 
entitled to collect his ideas of nature as well as of Grod into a 
system. He in fact denied the possibility of a science of real 
being, and asserted that in straining our intellect to discover 
the essence of the world or the soul or the Divinity, we tres- 
pass totally beyond the province of our intellectual faculties. 
Kant came to this conclusion by analyzing the business of the 
understanding. The work of the human mind, he said, is to 
arrange, to digest, or comprehend the mysterious rough ma- 
terials suggested to us by the senses ; our reason orders our 
sensations. But while arranging the impressions received, 
we employ all kinds of formal or leading principles, which 
have nothing to do with things themselves, but are entirely of 



FIFTH PERIOD RECENT PHILOSOPHERS AND HISTORIANS. 175 

our own invention. Such are time and space, two of reason's 
self-made rubrics, under which it chooses to comprise external 
objects, as locally and temporally distinct. They are neces- 
sary, universal, d priori principles in our mind, underived from 
experience, and previous to all sensible information. But, 
however indispensable and original they may be, it is man 
alone who introduces time and space into things, or rather 
into his perception of things ; but there is no evidence that 
nature herself has any time or space at all. Further, in our 
judgments we make use of four fundamental categories — 
quantity, quality, mode, and relation. These constitute, with 
time and space, the innate d priori scheme in the human mind ; 
they are necessary and axiomatic points of view, imported by 
us into our register of observations. From all this Kant con- 
cluded that, as our knowledge is self-invented in such impor- 
tant elements, we cannot positively assert that it is " objec- 
tively true." The world is a book with seven seals upon it : 
we read our own version, but not the true text. We know 
the semblance, but not the substance of nature. For this 
reason, human conclusions on the supernatural world cannot 
be binding. The philosophy of Kant is but a few steps re- 
moved from a complete disbelief in the veracity of our cog- 
nitions. The argument, however, on which his theory is 
founded differs from those of Pyrrho, Hume, Berkeley, or any 
other so-called Idealists. Kant's argument is the alleged 
d priori nature of the intellect, or the assertion that the recog- 
nition of existing things proceeds from laws which lie in the 
thinking subject itself. 

With the semi-sceptical view of metaphysics, Kant com- 
bined a severe rigourism in moral philosophy. He disliked 
meddling with divinity, and had all the less inducement to 
meddle with it as he was not a clergyman or a theologian, 
any more than the other German philosophers who preceded 
and followed him. This, however, did not prevent him from 
expressing his convictions on natural religion. He thought 



176 



geemax liteeattjee . 



that a belief in a personal God, in free will, and in immor- 
tality, were the three essential points of any sober system of 
religion. These he pronounced practically useful and morally 
indispensable doctrines, although he declined, in accordance 
with the theory already detailed, to assign any metaphysical 
reasons for believing in their accuracy. 

Johann G. Fichte (1762-1814), rose after Kant, and deduced 
the last consequences of his master's system in eloquent and 
vigorous language. His principal work is the " Wissenschafts- 
Lehre," which exaggerates the semi- scepticism of Kant. The 
last-mentioned philosopher had not questioned the authenticity 
of the impressions made on our senses, although he had repre- 
sented the understanding as their complete arbiter and con- 
troller. But Fichte went further in scepticism, and denied 
the certainty of our sensual perceptions. He said the only 
thing we could be sure of was the Ego, or the conscious self ; 
and he declared the whole world besides ourselves, or the JSTon- 
Ego, to be no more than the result of the self-persuasions of 
the reflecting mind. Thus, the real existence of all other 
things but ourselves became to Eichte, just as to Bishop Berke- 
ley, a doubtful question. Even our idea of the Deity should 
form no exception to this problematical character of our know- 
ledge. Eichte explained our notion of a divinity as arising 
from the conviction we feel that there is a law of moral com- 
pensation in the world, and this law he believed to be personi- 
fied in the idea of God. 

The author of the "Wissensehafts-Lehre " was professor at 
Jena, the old Saxon academy, which had taken the place which 
once Wittenberg, and more recently Gottingen, had held as the 
leading university of Germany. At Jena he published a phi- 
losophical journal, in which from time to time some anti- 
orthodox articles appeared, in language too unguarded not to 
give offence to the Weimar court, or rather to the clerical party 
of the petty Saxon states. It appears that neither Herder nor 
Gothe, nor any other of the celebrities of Weimar, interposed 



FIFTH PEHIOD KECENT PHILOSOPHEHS AND HISTOEIANS. 177 



in behalf of Fichte. Thus, the Grand Duke Karl August, the 
disciple of Wieland, and the friend of Gothe, thought fit to 
make Fichte a martyr to the animosity of the Lutheran Church. 
The philosopher was involved in a legal prosecution for irre- 
ligion, and threatened with expulsion from his university. 
Fichte defended himself from the charge of Atheism, and in re- 
butting it had public opinion entirely on his side. Though he 
showed that he was wronged, he threw up his professorship, 
and retired to Erlangen, and thence to Berlin, where a new 
university was soon after founded, which obscured all similar 
institutions in Germany. Fichte subsequently became one of 
the first professors of Berlin University. But before this 
event, he pleaded in several pamphlets for freedom of religious 
belief, and defended the right of philosophical inquiry . He 
openly denied' that a German prince had any right to inter- 
fere with liberty of conscience among his subjects. When, in 
1806, the outbreak of the war with France diverted the atten- 
tion of the Prussians to more pressing questions, Fichte again 
stepped forward in a manly and patriotic attitude. His 
"Reden an die Deutsche Nation, " or Addresses to the German 
Nation, roused his countrymen to united action, and encouraged 
them to a firm resistance against the foreign invaders. He 
was one of the foremost, as well as the boldest, to agitate 
against the ascendancy of Napoleon. But Fichte knew well 
that words are idle, and liable to contempt, when the hour of 
action arrives. Thus Germany witnessed a grand and moving 
spectacle, when, at the general rising of the population, in 
1813, she beheld a feeble and care- worn professor marching 
among the youth of the land, shouldering his musket, and 
silently performing his duties as a soldier of the liberation 
army. This man was Fichte, who had left his home to gi^e 
his life for his country. He saw his cause issue triumphant 
from the struggle, and was for several years one of the most 
admired professors of Berlin. He died in 1814. 

Meanwhile the philosophical scepticism of Fichte could not 



178 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



long remain unanswered. To question the reality of the world 
is an idea so startling, that the human mind naturally recoils 
from such a doctrine ; and philosophy, with all its ingenuity, 
will never succeed in upholding for a time a theory so repug- 
nant to common sense. The first who opposed Eichte was 
Jacohi; but soon Schelling (1775-1854), an old disciple of the 
former, proclaimed a new doctrine, which at all events secured 
the belief in the reality of the outer world. That Fichte had 
exaggerated the views of Kant seemed generally agreed upon ; 
but how was he to be answered ? To extricate philosophy from 
this dilemma, Schelling proposed the so- called Identity Doctrine. 
We will try briefly to explain what it was. In order to get 
over .the antagonism of Understanding and Sensations, of Ego 
and Non-Ego, of the real world and the ideal, Schelling de- 
nied that there was any radical opposition between the one and 
the other. He asserted that Existence and Thinking are coin- 
cident in all their most important aspects. As things exist to 
us only so far as we can think of them, and as that which we 
never think of is as good as non-existent, at least for us, Eeing 
and Thinking are practically the same. The macrocosm of the 
world is mirrored by the microcosm of the soul — just as the 
landscape is reflected in the water, or as the scenes of life ap- 
pear on the pupil of the eye. Whether there be other phases 
of Existence, or other parts of the world which we may know 
nothing about, can make no difference, because they do not af- 
fect our Understanding. Thus Schelling held that there was 
a complete philosophical " identity" between the world of mat- 
ter and the world of our ideas ; and he pronounced the self- 
revealings of the one parallel to the manifestations of the other. 
This singular theory was advocated in several of Schelling' s 
essays, especially in his " Method of Academic Studies,' ' the 
principal work of this philosopher in his earlier years. On 
leaving J ena, where he had heard Eichte, he became a profes- 
sor at Munich. Subsequently he was invited by King Frede- 
rick William IY. to come to Berlin. At that time Schelling 



FIFTH PEBIOD— BECENT PHILOSOPHERS AND HISTOBIAffS. i 79 

had abjured his old inclination to Spinozism, or the deification 
of nature, and he now endeavoured with increased zeal to re- 
concile his philosophy with Revelation. His "Disquisitions 
on Free Will" gave particular evidence of this desire. Unfor- 
tunately Germany proved singularly incredulous on the con- 
version of a philosopher who was so largely remunerated for 
the new insight he had got. Schelling became a mark for the 
satire of the Berliners, the butt of the attacks of the Hegelians, 
and the laughing-stock of the poets of Young Germany. His 
frequent but always unfilfilled promises of a new philosophy 
which shortly should appear before the public, and surpass in 
depth anything yet heard of, merely contributed to damage his 
reputation ; and long before he died he found himself univer- 
sally decried as a mystic and a dotard. 

Georg Hegel (1770-1831) was, like Schelling, a native of 
Swabia, and lived with him on intimate terms as long as they 
were both residing at Jena and near Fichte. Subsequently 
they each philosophized independently, and Hegel gradually 
acquired the ambiguous reputation of being the most abstruse 
thinker whom Germany ever had seen. On leaving Jena he 
had gone to Heidelberg, whence he was called to Berlin. This 
was more than twenty years before Schelling came. Hegel re- 
sided at Berlin, since 1818, under the reign of King Frederick 
William III., and during the ministry of the liberal Baron von 
Altenstein, a personal friend of Hegel. For the space of about 
twelve years, during which this philosopher taught in the 
Prussian capital, he exercised an almost incredible fascination 
over the learned public. His speculative ardour, his novel 
phraseology, his daring paradoxes, and, above all, his great pro- 
fundity, dazzled both young and old. Hegel flinched from no 
mystery, however hallowed ; he stopped short before no diffi- 
culty, however arduous. The same man who in his old ago 
demonstrated the dogma of the Trinity, is said in his younger 
years to have proved seven to be necessarily the number of 
the planets, when but seven were known ; but to have proved 



180 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



that there ought to be eleven planets when the four asteroids 
had been discovered. Perhaps, were he still alive, he would 
prove now that they must be sixty or seventy. Hegel passed, 
nevertheless, for a kind of oracle in his time. Divines, scho- 
lars, and statesmen crowded his lecture room, and among his 
very colleagues he was regarded with a kind of awe by all but 
the jealous Schleiermacher. It was fortunate for Hegel's fame 
that he died before the spell had passed. In 1831 he was at- 
tacked by the cholera, and succumbed after a very short illness. 
His principal works are his " Phanomenologie" and his " Lo- 
gik." But he has left works on the metaphysical principles 
of almost every scientific department — on Laws, Theology, 
History, Ethics, and Art. 

It is not easy to give a succinct account of Hegel's philoso- 
phy. A tinge of Pantheism is perceptible in his doctrines, 
although Hegel himself denied every imputation of the kind ; 
his theories he declared to be in accordance with Christianity, 
while his political doctrines certainly exhibit an anti-revolu- 
tionary and conservative turn. One of the most striking fea- 
tures of his system is his method. Hegel had formed the 
conviction that the universal process of all creation obeyed the 
laws of contrast and unison. Believing, like Schelling, in the 
correspondence of Being and Thinking, and therefore assimi- 
lating the method of Beasoning to the fundamental process of 
all Nature, he concluded that the perfection of philosophy 
consisted in tracing contrast and unison everywhere. He de- 
clared not only polar, chemical, and magnetic action, liable to 
the supreme law of harmony caused by opposition, but he 
traced a similar flux and reflux of contrary tendencies in the 
phenomena of organized nature ; he even subjected mental 
and moral action to the same law; for the same reason, he ar- 
ranged his doctrines in a succession of antitheses, each being 
succeeded by its resolution. Contrast and Unison, or, as they 
are logically expressed, Negation and Identity, are the two 
pillars of Hegel's system of philosophy. By means of these 



FIFTH PERIOD— -RECENT PHILOSOPHERS AND HISTORIANS. 181 

two fundamental principles, Hegel methodically proceeds from 
the lowest point of Existence to the highest. He begins with 
pure Being, or the perfect Void, and rises up to God, in whom 
all Being centres, and all contrasts meet. 

The design of Hegel's Logic is very peculiar. In accordance 
with the axiom started by Schelling, viz., the close junction 
of Existence and Thought, Logic was combined by Hegel 
with Ontology. This combination produced very singular 
consequences ; for thus the science of the laws of thought was 
compelled to teach Cosmogony as well. In order to do so, 
Hegel had to imagine the human intellect as perfect, or as in 
possession of the secrets of Creation. His Logic attempted 
nothing less than to unfold, at one blow, the ultimate causes 
of creative Power, and the ultimate laws of the human Intel- 
lect, just as if the mind of man were equal to the Divine. 
Thus, in Hegel's sense, Logic became a science of the Abso- 
lute, or the Deity, delineating the innermost principles of both 
Matter and Mind. The palpable difficulties of such a plan did 
not deter him from trying it, although in the very way in 
which it was executed it often stumbled on paradoxes too 
strong not to afford a warning. Thus, for instance, the 
identification of modes of Thought with modes of Existence 
led Hegel to assert that life, the planetary system, and the 
world were kinds of syllogism ; and, again, that notions, pro- 
positions, and syllogisms were material parts of nature ! 

Another point which may require elucidation is Hegel's re- 
lation to Divinity. As already observed, this philosopher had 
nothing of the judicious reserve which Kant had shown ; he 
was fond of meddling with speculative Theology, and stepped 
out of his province in order to render to orthodoxy some offi- 
cious services, which soon after his death were denounced as 
mere snares and rank heresies. As if ours was the age of an 
Origen, or a St. Augustine, he offered philosophical explana- 
tions of the mysteries of Christianity. Thus he demonstrated 
the dogma of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and so on ; but by 

R 



182 



GERMAN" LITERATURE. 



far the most disputed point was the nature of the Divine Es- 
sence itself. Hegel was not precise as to whether he thought 
the Absolute a personal Being or not ; his usual phraseology 
was to call the Absolute both " Substance and Subject/' i. e., 
both a Thing and a conscious Agent. But, as differences of in- 
terpretation were inevitable on so vital a question, the exten- 
sive school of his adherents split into two portions shortly 
after his death. Some said Hegel meant by the Deity the 
God of the Christian religion — the Schemer, not the Scheme, of 
the Universe. Others, on the contrary, dispersonified the 
Divinity, and described their philosophical God as a dumb 
and unconscious Intelligence, which attained knowledge of 
itself only in the brains of thinking men. The former section 
of Hegelians assumed, therefore, a divine Understanding apart 
from the human ; while the latter would acknowledge no dif- 
ference between the two, and assigned to the heads of earth- 
born mortals the functions of the sensorium Dei. Among the 
orthodox philosophers of Hegel's School we may mention the 
late Professor Gabler of Berlin, Erdmann of Halle, and Bosen- 
kranz of Konigsberg. The chief coryphees of the Rationalistic 
section are the well-known David Strauss — who started, in 1 835, 
the mythical theory of sacred history, in his " Life of Jesus" — 
and Eeuerbach, the author of the "Essence of Christianity.' ' 
It lies beyond the purposes of this Outline to enter at large 
into the controversies and history of German Divinity. 

The merit of having critically dispersed many of the philo- 
sophical illusions of Hegel and his disciples belongs princi- 
pally to Professor A. Trendelenburg, who is decidedly one of the 
leading thinkers of Germany in the present day. This philo- 
sopher became first known as a profound Aristotelian scholar ; 
but his merits as an independent logician rest chiefly on his 
" Logische Untersuchungen," first published in 1840, a book 
still imperfectly appreciated in England. Trendelenburg 
holds fast by the correspondence of Thought and Existence, 
and therefore still unites logic with ontology, but without en- 



FIFTH PE1U0D RECENT PHILOSOPHERS AND HISTORIANS. 183 

dorsing the exaggerations of Hegel, or claiming an exact ac- 
quaintance with the nature of the Deity and the ultimate laws 
of the universe. He also pleads for final causes, or marks of 
design, especially in the organized part of nature, and gene- 
rally makes it his object to consult and utilize the discoveries 
of modern science for the advantage and improvement of logi- 
cal inquiry. 

Historiographers. — The historians of Germany are, on the 
whole, less remarkable for lively diction, graphic narrative, or 
elegance of sty] e, than many who have written on the events of 
the past in either France or England. Nor are they distin- 
guished by political experience, or by any high discrimination 
of measures and actions which were either conducive or preju- 
dicial to public welfare. In searching the records of former 
ages, they were chiefly led by a desire for knowledge, or by 
the wish to supply information to others. The effect of this 
circumstance was, on the one hand, to deprive the pages of 
German historiographers of much of the keen interest which 
either beauty of style or political sagacity can impart to the 
page of history. But, on the other hand, it preserved their 
writings more pure from the influences of party spirit or na- 
tional vanity. The historical literature of Germany is thoroughly 
imbued with the studious disposition of its composers. If it 
has excellencies, they chiefly consist in fidelity, accuracy, and 
impartiality. One kind of historiography is especially of Ger- 
man growth, the style which Mebuhr invented, and which we 
may call the investigative or critical. It is only applicable to 
the doubtful or mythical periods of history, or to those which 
call rather for a rigid examination of the facts and authorities 
than for a plain and easy transcription of existing records. In 
addition to this style, a sort of philosophical historiography has 
been successfully cultivated byHeeren, Schlosser, and Eanke, 
if we may thus designate their manner. It consists in a 
scrutinizing survey of the moral, literary, and religious IV 1a- 
tures, as well as of the commercial industry, of the ages or 



184 



GEEMAN LITEEA.TTTEE. 



peoples which these historians severally undertook to describe i, 
and it proceeds on the rational supposition that an analysis of 
these is quite as instructive as an account of the political events 
of a period, inasmuch as they throw great light on the state 
and progress of civilization among the races which successively 
have inhabited the earth. 

Since the beginning of the sixteenth century, when A. 
Tschudi (1505-1572), and Etterlin (about 1507), had com- 
posed their chronicles on the history of Switzerland, no good 
historical work of any importance was published in Germany 
until about 1760. About that time a Hanoverian, Justus 
Moser (1720-1794), composed an excellent history of Osna- 
briick, a town not very distant from Minister or Minden. 
The author, who was patronized by George III., his prince, 
was a man of strong good sense, and gave evidence of his clear 
insight into some difficult problems of political economy in 
the monography just mentioned, as well as in other essays 
which he left. About thirty years later, Herder wrote his 
Ideas on the History of Mankind, and Schiller composed his 
masterly works on the Dutch Eebellion and the Thirty Years' 
War. A Prussian officer of the name of ArchenhoMz also com- 
posed an account of the Seven Years* "War, in which he had 
taken part under Frederick the Great. 

The first German writer on Universal History, and one of 
the best historians in general, was Johannes von Muller 
(1752-1809). He was a Swiss, born in Schaffhausen, but 
spent the greater part of his life in Berlin, as well as in other 
German towns, where he was befriended by prelates and 
princes. This did not deter Muller from soliciting and obtain- 
ing the patronage of the French when they invaded Prussia 
in 1806. During the short-lived reign of Jerome, King of 
Westphalia, he accepted the post of cabinet minister at the 
court of Cassel, an act of desertion which was afterwards made 
the subject of the bitterest reproach against him. It seems 
that Muller, who was a very honourable man, and quite as 



FIFTH PERIOD EECEXT PHILOSOPHERS AND HISTORIANS. 185 

patriotic as many of his revilers, despaired of the immediate 
restoration of German independence, and perhaps he hoped in 
the important position which he held to mitigate the evil of a 
foreign dominion in the conquered provinces. There is good 
reason to assert that Miiller prevented numerous measures 
which would have injured the welfare of those provinces, and 
promoted others, which were highly conducive to their pros- 
perity. He died, however, before the total expulsion of the 
French. Two great works were left by him — a history of 
Switzerland, built on Tschudi, and a Universal History, the 
first extensive publication which contains a connected account 
of the Germanic empire. Miiller has been called a German 
Thucydides. He merits this appellation for the quiet impar- 
tiality and unbroken coldness for which that ancient historian 
has often been admired. He never allows his own opinions 
and feelings to interfere with his delineations, and some think 
that he carried this peculiarity to excess. As to his language, 
it is very good German, but has a rather periodic and oratorical 
complexion. 

Barthold Georg Nieluhr (1776-1831), has acquired Euro- 
pean fame as the historian of ancient Rome, and as the in- 
ventor of the investigative style of historiography. His work, 
first published, in 1826, produced an immense impression on 
the commonwealth of letters, and overturned all the received 
notions of the earlier periods of Eoman history. He showed 
that Livy, and those other authors from whom our notions on 
this subject are derived, had themselves been misled by igno- 
rance and prejudice. Legends, family traditions, and opinions 
of later ages had greatly infected their traditions ; and Niebuhr 
attempted to draw the line between the historical and the fic- 
titious part. His object is never to leave every thing uncer- 
tain and make the reader distrustful and suspicious, but to 
remove old myths and trumpery stories for reasonable and 
well-supported theories of his own. He is constructive, and 
from hints and chance confessions, frequently detects truth 

r 2 



186 



GrEEMAX LITEEATUEE. 



under the disguise of absurd traditions and national vanity. 
It is only to be regretted that the shrewdness of investigation 
and historical acumen which this great man displayed should 
not have been accompanied with proportionate elegance of 
style. Germany owes to Mebuhr not only improved notions 
on early Eoman historj^ but also a school of Natural Law, 
called " Die historiche Juristenschule." His views were con- 
servative, as might be expected of one who had long been the 
tutor of the late King of Prussia. Hence he looked on the 
French Revolution as a most pernicious event, and accounted 
for the principal incidents in the history of mankind by super- 
natural guidance. 

Seer en (1760-1842), a professor of Gottingen, has ably 
discussed ancient times, with especial reference to their insti- 
tutions, commerce, religion, and progress in civilization. His 
principal book is, "Ideen iiber Politik, Yerkehr und Handel 
der alten Welt." 

F. Schlosser (1776-1861), late professor of Heidelberg, was 
a masterly writer on universal history. The chief merit of his 
" Welt-Geschichte" is, besides its good style and sound infor- 
mation, the excellent use to which he turns literature and the 
other relics of ancient and modern times in drawing the charac- 
ter of past ages, and describing the genius of departed or ex- 
isting nations. 

Leopold Ranke, born in 1795, is one of the best living his- 
torians of Germany. He resides in Berlin, and has chiefly 
become famous by his History of the Popes. This work em- 
braces not only the biographies of the occupants of the Papal 
chair, but the history of the whole of Europe during the six- 
teenth and seventeenth centuries. He writes universal history, 
and his forte consists in characterizing the age of the Refor- 
mation by means of a connected and comprehensive view of all 
the contemporaneous events in politics, as well as in the his- 
tory of art, science, and literature. The struggles and counter- 
efforts of Protestantism and Popery, which are the real theme 



FIFTH PERIOD — -RECENT PHILOSOPHERS AND HISTORIANS. 187 

of the book, required a pen such as that of Eanke, since they 
foughtwith spiritual weapons quite as much as with diplomatic 
and military arms. His book contains also excellent delinea- 
tions of individual character, as, for example, that of Leo X., 
Paul III., and Sixtus Y. His style is simple, unostentatious, 
and impartial. Even Eoman Catholic critics have admitted 
the fairness and justice of his representations. It may be ob- 
served that Eanke had the best materials before him, since the 
recommendations of the Prussian court had procured him ac- 
cess to the secret papers of Yienna and the Yatican. 

The two principal living historians of the Middle Ages are Leo 
and Eaumer. Heinrich Leo, born in 1 789, professor of history 
at the University of Halle, combines consummate ability and 
learning with many principles which are becoming obsolete in 
our century. He has such a profound admiration for the heroic 
and devotional spirit of the Middle Ages, that he disparages all 
modern institutions, with their ideas of personal liberty. His 
fancy is filled with kuights, guilds, corporations, and feuda- 
lism. He hates alike the wild licentiousness of anarchy and 
the sober liberty of a constitution. It cannot, however, be 
denied that he has happily seized the temper of those times, 
and thrown a charm and peculiar grandness on the chivalry 
of the Mediaeval Ages. F. Raumer, born in 1781, a diploma- 
tist in the Prussian service, has held many places at foreign 
legations, besides a professorship of history in Berlin. He 
has written an admirable history of the Hohenstaufen em- 
perors, that glorious line of princes who ruled over Germany 
in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 

Dahlmann (1785-1861) was a historian and political doc- 
trinaire, who selected as his topic the Eevolutions of France 
and England. He lectured at Bonn, and took a prominent 
part in the Frankfort Parliament of 1848 ; but the constitution 
which he drew up with Gagern and others remained a mere 
paper sketch, which future combinations may yet render 
available. 



188 



GERMAN LITERATURE. 



Gervinus is the author of a voluminous and excellent work 
on the Literature of Germany ; he has also written a work on 
Shakespeare, and lately commenced a history of the nineteenth 
century. His opinions are liberal; in fact, he was in his 
earlier years the martyr of his Liberalism, or rather of his sense 
of justice, when the eccentric Duke of Cumberland, on his 
accession to the throne of Hanover, in 1838, withdrew the 
constitution, and forced him, with six other professors of Got- 
tingen, to resign their chairs, because they would not sign the 
required oath on the new laws which had been promulgated. 

Meander has written the history of the Christian Church, 
Mommsen that of Eome, Duncker and Droysen portions of 
Greek history, in works of the highest talent and erudition. 

The history of Germany has been narrated by Wolfgang 
Menzel, a zealous Conservative, but formerly a Radical. His 
style is elegant and simple, but at the same time charac- 
terized by critical assumption. His namesake (Adolph) Men- 
zel, and Luden, and Heinrich, have also composed histories of 
Germany. F. Kohlrausch has written an excellent elementary 
book on the same subject. 



CHRONOLOGIGAL TABLE. 



FIRST PERIOD. 350-1150. The Monastic Age. Old-High-Gkr- 
man Prose and Poetry. 

350. Ulfilas— Mcesogothic translation of the Bible. 
750. Beowulf, an Anglo-Saxon Legend. 

800. Hildebrandslied, a ballad describing a combat between a father and 
his son. 

830. Muspilli, poem on the Day of Judgment. 
840. Heliand, Low-German poem on the life of the Saviour. 
881. Ludwigslied, song on the Victory of Louis III. over the Normans. 
890. Otfried, a Franconian monk, author of the " Krist." 
960-1022. Notker Labeo, a monk of St. Gall, translator of the Psalms. 
1025-1085. Williram, a Franconian monk, translator of the Song of 
Solomon. 

1120. Ava, a nun, writer of several religious poems. 

SECOND PERIOD. 1150-1534. Middle-High-German Poetry of 
the Minnesinger (A) and the Meisters^enger (B). 

A. 1. Versified Chronicles. 

1160. Hannolied, a poem on Bishop Hanno of Cologne. 
1165. Kaiserchronik, a poem on the Emperors of Germany. 
1175. Rolandslied, song on Rowland the Brave, by Konrad. 
1180. Alexanderlied, by Lamprecht. 

1186. iEneid, by H. von Veldecke, " the father of minstrelsy." 

2. Epic Poems on German heroes, by unknown Minnesanger. 

1210. The Lay of the Nibelungen. 

1210. Gudrun, poem on the rescue of a Frisian maid. 



190 



CHEO^OLOGICAL TABLE. 



3. British Legends, by three principal Minnesanger. 

1170-1220. Hartmann von der Aae (Iwein. Erek. Der arme Heinrich). 
1215. Wolfram von Eschenbach (Parcival, Titurel). 
1220. Gottfried von Strasburg (Tristan and Isolde). 

Lohengrin, a tale of the next century, on the Schwanen-Ritter Lohen- 
grin, son of Parcival ; author not known. 

* 

4. Lyrical Poetry of the Minnesanger. 

1207. Contest of the Minstrels on the castle of Wartburg. 

1168-1227. Walther von der Vogelweide, author of Leiche or Lieder. 

Other Lyrists are : Kiirenberger; Ulrich von Lichtenstein ■ 
Reinmar von Zweter; Dietmar von Aist, etc. 

5. Didactic Poetry of the Minnesanger. 

Freidank's Bescheidenheit, probably by Walther. 
Der PfafFe Amis, by Strieker, a satire on the clergy. 
Der Renner, by Hugo von Trimberg. 
Der Edelstein, a collection of fables, by Boner. 

1500. Reineke Fuchs, fable of the Reynard — several versions — by 
Willem, in 1150; Heinrich der Gleissner, in 1170 ; and by 
Baumann, or else by Barkhusen of Liibeck, in 1498. 

Period of the Meistersjenger. 1300-1534. 
B. 1. Meister sanger. 

1340. Heinrich von Meissen, surnamed Frauenlob, of Mayence. 
1380. Heinrich der Teichner, and Peter Suchenwirt, both of Vienna. 
1400. Muscatbliit; Veit^Weber. 
1450. Rosenblut ; Hans Folz. 

1460. Michael Beheim, a weaver's son, and soldier of Vienna. 
1494-1576. Hans Sachs, a shoemaker of Niirnberg, author of Possen, 
fables, allegories, Easter plays, etc. 

2. Chroniclers. 

1386. Halbsuter's poem on the battle of Sempach. 
1370. Fritsche Closener's Chronicle of Strasburg. 
1414. Jacob T winger's Chronicle of Alsacia. 
1500. Emperor Maximilian I., author of " Theuerdank." 

3. Satirists. 

1458-1521. Sebastian Brandt, of Strasburg, " Narrenschiif." 



1229. 
1230. 
1300. 
1330. 
1150- 



CHBONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



191 



1545-1589. Johann Fischart— Das gliickhafte Schiff. Flohhatz ; German 
Rabelais. 

4. Preachers. 
1300. Master Eckhart, a Dominican friar. 
1320. Johann Tauler. 
1350. Heinrich Suso, a Dominican friar. 
1500. Geiler von Kaisersberg. 

THIRD PERIOD. 1534-1760. The Learned Era. 
1483-1546. Martin Luther— Translation of the Bible, Kirchen-lieder, Ser- 
mons, Pamphlets. 
1488-1523. Ulrich von Hutten, Pamphleteer. 

1605- 1659. Simon Dach, Hymn writer. 
1609-1640. Paul Fleming, Hymn writer. 

1606- 1676. Paul Gerhard, Hymn writer! 
1592-1635. Friedrich Spee, author of Trutznachtigall. 
1616-1654. Andreas Gryphius, Hymn writer. 
1500-1556. Burkhard Waldis, Fabulist. 
1542-1556. G. Rollenhagen, Fabulist. 
1601-1669. Moscherosch, Satirist. 

1669. " Simplicissimus," a novel of the Thirty Years' War. 

Critical Writers. 
1597-1639. Martin Opitz, founder of the first Silesian School. 
1618-1669. Hoffmanswaldau, with Lohenstein and Logau, founders of the 

second Silesian School. 
1700-1766. Gottsched, founder of the Saxon School. 
1725-1783. Bodmer, founder of the Swiss School. 
1715-1769. Gellert, fabulist, disciple of Gottsched. 
1719-1783. Lichtwer, fabulist ; Pfeffel, fabulist. 

FOURTH PERIOD. 1760-1805. The Classical Era. 
1729-1781. G. E. Lessing — " Hamburger Dramaturgic, Laocoon, Antigotze, 

Erziehung des Menschen-Geschlechts ; Minna, Emilia 

Galotti, Nathan,'' 
1724-1803. Klopstock— " Messias," Odes, Dramas. 

1744-1803. Herder — "Cid, Stimmen der Volker in Liedern, Ideas towards 

the History of Mankind." 
1772. Foundation of the Gottingen Dichterbund; Klinger's "Sturm und 

Drang," a drama. 
1747-1794. Burger — Ballads, Baron Munchausen. 



192 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



1757-1826. Voss — Louise, a pastoral ; translation of Homer. 

1783-1813. Wieland — Agathon, Musarion, Abderites, Aristippus, Oberon. 

1763-1825. Richter — Quintus Fixlein, Flegeljahre, Siebenkas. 

1759-1805. F. Schiller— Robbers, Fiesco, Kabale, Don Carlos, Ballads, 
Lyrics, Thirty Years' War, Revolt of the Dutch, Wallen- 
stein, Mary Stuart, Maid of Orleans, William Tell. 

1750-1814. Iffland, writer of comedies. 

1761-1819. Kotzebue, writer of comedies. 

1749-1832. J. W. Gothe— Gotz, Werther, Clavigo, Stella, Iphigenia, 
Faust, Egmont, Tasso, Wilhelm Meister, Hermann und 
Dorothea, Reineke, Ballads. 

FIFTH PERIOD. 1805-1865. Recent Waiters. 
1. Romantics. 

1767-1845. Augustus W. Schlegel — Lectures on Dramatic Art, Ion, trans- 
lations of Calderon and of Shakespeare. 

1772-1829. Frederick Schlegel — Philosophy of History, Lucinda, Language 
and Wisdom of the Indians. 

1772- 1801. Hardenberg, or Novalis — Aphorisms, Hymn on Night. 

1773- 1853. Ludwig Tieck — Tales and Legends. 

Count Arnim, Brentano, Bettina, Fouque, A. Hoffmann, Cha- 
misso, writers of tales. 

2. Ultra- Conservatives. 
1783-1819. Max Scbenkendorf— Lyrics. 
1823--. . . . Oscar Redwitz — Dramas, Amaranth. 
1772-1842. Bishop Pyrker — Tunisias, Rudolfias, two epics. 
Countess Hahn-Hahn ; Baroness Droste, 

3. Patriotic and Liberal Poets. 
Theodor Korner — Lyre and Sword. 
Ludwig Uhland — Ballads. 
Arndt — Patriotic songs. 

Fr. Riickert — Geharnischte Sonnette, Oriental poetry. 
Count Platen — Comedies, Lyrics. 

Baron Lenau and Anastasius Griin, two Austrian Poets. 

4. Advanced Liberals. 
181 7-. . . . G. Herwegh — Gedichte eines Lebendigen an die Todten, 
1810-. . . . F. Freiligrath — Lyrics. 
1798-. . . . Hoffmann von Fallersleben — Patriotic songs. 

Kinkel, Gutzkow, and Prutz, political writers. 



1791-1813. 
1787-1862. 
1769-1860. 
1789-. . . . 
1796-1825. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 



193 



1799-1856. H. Heine— Reisebilder, Buch der Lieder, Neue Lieder, Salon, 
Atta Troll, Romancero. 

Modern Philosophers. 
1575-1624. Jacob Bbhme — Aurora, Mysterium Magnum. 
1646-1716. Leibnitz— Theodicee. 

1724-1804. Immanuel Kant — Kritik der reinen Vernunft, Kritik der prak- 

tischen Vernunft, der Urtheilskraft. 
1762-1814. Fichte— Wissenschaftslehre. 

1775- 1854. Schelling— Method of Academic Study. 
1770-1831. Hegel — Phaenomenologie, Logik. 

180 6-. . . . Trendelenburg — Logische Untersuchungen. 

Modern Historians. 
1505-1572. Tschudi — Chronicle of the History of Switzerland. 
1720-1794. Justus Moser — History of Osnabriick. 

1752-1809. Johannes von Muller — Weltgeschichte, Schweizer Geschiehte. 
1781—. . . . Raumer — History of the Hohenstaufen Emperors. 
1795-. . . . Ranke — History of the Popes. 

1776- 1831. B. G. Niebuhr— History of Rome. 
1776-1861. Schlosser— Universal History* 

1760-1842. Heeren — Ideas on Politics, Commerce, etc., of the ancient 
world. 

1785-1861. Dahlmann — History of the French Revolution, and History of 

the English Revolution. 
1805—. . . . Gervinus — History of the Nineteenth Century, History of 
German Literature. 
Droysen on Alexander of Macedon, and History of Prussia. 
Mommsen, History of Rome. 
Duncker, History of Antiquity. 



S 



INDEX. 



JEneid or Eneit, versified romance, by Veldekin, 40» 
Alexanderlied, versified chronicle, by Lampreeht, 40. 
Alliterative verse of ancient poetry, 28. 

„ specimen of, 31. 
Annolied — Chronicle of Hanno of Cologne, 38. 
Archenholtz— History of Seven Years' War, 184. 
Arndt, lyric poet, 154. 
Arnim, composer of tales, 151. 
Beowulf, Low-German heroic poem, 30. 
Bohme, illiterate mystic philosopher, 172. 
Borne, political essayist — his quarrel with Heine, 167. 
Brandt, satirist — Ship of Fools, 59-60. 
Burger — Ballads, Munchausen ascribed to him, 102. 
Burkhard Waldis, fabulist, 72. 

Chamisso, Romantic writer, author of Schlemihl, 151. 
Closener, chronicler of Alsacia, 62. 
Crusades, effect of, on Literature, 36. 
Dach, Simon, a hymn writer, 67. 
Drama founded by Lessing, 92. 

„ German, character of, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89. 

„ Shakspeare's, how it differs from German, 88, 

„ French, its style, 86. 

„ the classical German, plays of, 90. 
Droste-Hulshoff, recent poetess, 152. 
Droysen, historian, 188. 

Eckhart, a theologian of the School of the Mystics, 62. 
Emilia Galotti, tragedy of Lessing, 95. 
Eulenspiegel, stories of a roguish artizan, 73 , 
Fastnachts-Spiele or Carnival plays, 58. 
Faust, ancient story of, 74 ; tragedy of Gothe, 140- 
Fischart, satirist, imitator of Rabelais, 71. 
Flemming, hymn writer, 67. 



196 



I^ T DEX. 



Folz, Hans, a Meistersanger, 59. 

Fouque, Romantic writer, author of Undine, 151. 

Frauenlob, first Meistersanger, 59. 

Freiligrath, recent political poet and lyrist, 156. 

Frederick the Great, his dislike of German Literature, 84. 

Freidank's Bescheidenheit, or Wise Saws, by Walther, 52. 

Froschnieuseler, of Rolienhagen, a fable, 73 

German Language, its dialects, 4; fixed by Luther, 10, 132; stages of, 8 ; 
character of, 10. 

German Literature, contrasted with English, 17 ; with French, 15 ; its ten- 
dency, theorizing in prose, lyrical in poetry, 19. 
German Philosophy, characterized, 171. 

,, Historians, 183 ; Drama, 86. 
Gervinus, writer on History and on Literature, 187. 
Gessner — Death of Abel, pastoral in prose, 105. 
Geiler von Kaiserberg, a preacher, 62. 

Gothe, his life, 124 ; his character, 133 ; contrasted with Schiller, 111 ; his 
Gotz, 133; Werther, 125; Wilhelm Meister, 128; Egmont, 137; 
Tasso, 139; Faust, 140; Hermann und Dorothea, 144; Reineke, 144; 
Lyrics, 145. 

Gottingen Dichterbund, or poets' association, 101. 
Gottsched, founder of the Saxon School, a critic, 78. 
Grimm, brothers, 7. 

Griin, Anastasius, an Austrian lyrist, 156. 

Gryphius, hymn writer, dramatist, 70. 

Gudrun, ancient epic, 47. 

Hagedorn, a poet, 79. 

Hainbund, or Grove-club of Gottingen, 101. 

Haller, a poet, 79. 

Hamann, " the Northern Magus," of Konigsberg, 99. 
Hartmann von der Aue, minstrel, 48. 
Hegel, 179. 

Heine, life of, 160; Reisebilder, 161; Buch der Lieder, 163; Atta Troll, 

168; Salon, 166; character of, 169. 
Heliand, old sacred poem, paraphrased by Otfried. 32. 
Herder, life of, 99 ; Cid, 101. 
Historians, German, style of, 183. 
Herwegh, recent political poet, 156. 
Hildebrandslied, 30, 
Hoffman, Amadeus, writer of tales, 151. 
Hoffman von Fallersleben, political poet, 156. 



INDEX. 



197 



HofFmaunswaldau, founder of Second Silesian School. 77. 

Hutten, Ulrich von, pamphleteer in Luther's time, 71. 

Jacobi, a philosopher, opposed Fichte's idealism, 177. 

IfHand, a theatrical composer, 97. 

Kant, philosopher of Konigsberg, 173. 

Kleist, author of "Friihling," 105. 

Klinger, author of " Sturm und Drang," 82. 

Klopstock — Odes, Messiah, 98. 

Kohlrausch, historian, 188. 

Korner, author of " Lyre and Sword," 153. 

Kotzebue, author of stage-plays, 97. 

Lachmann's theory of the origin of Nibelungenlied, 46, 

Lamprecht, priest, author of " Alexanderlied," 40. 

Lenau, Austrian poet, 156. 

Leo, historian, 187. 

Lessing, life and works of, 90. 

Leibnitz, philosopher, 173. 

Lohenstein, founder of Second Silesian School, 77. 

Louise, a pastoral by Voss, 104. 

Luden, historian, 188. 

Luther, his influence on Literature, 9, 65. 

Maximilian, Emperor, author of Theuerdank, and of Weisskonig, allegorical 

chronicles, 61. 
Meissen, a Meistersanger, or Frauenlob, 58. 

Meister, or a poet of the burgher class, subsequently of the artisan class, 53, 55. 
Meister-Gesang explained, 55. 

Menzel, "Wolfgang, and Adolphus, historians of Germany, 189. 
Middle-High-German, or the dialect of High-German used between 1150 

and 1534, 9. 
Minne-poetry, or Love-poetry, minstrelsy, 35. 
Moscherosch, satirical novelist of seventeenth century, 73. 
Moser, historian of Osnabruck, 184. 
Miiller, Johannes, historian, 184. 

Muspilli, ancient sacred poem on the End of the World, 33. 
Mystics, a school of Divines in the fifteenth century, 63. 
Nathan, didactic drama by Lessing, 96. 
Nibelungenlied, epitome of, 40 ; composition of, 46. 

„ verse of, 41 ; Frederick the Great's opinion of, 84. 
Niebuhr, historian of Rome, Jurist, 185. 
Novalis, Romantic writer and Conservative, 150. 
Oberon, by Wieland, a romance, 106. 

T 



198 



INDEX. 



Opitz, founder of the first Silesian School, 7 6. 
Otfried, a monk, introducer of rhyme, first High-German poet, his "Krist," 34. 
Pfaffe Amis, a roguish priest, whose life was written by Strieker, 52. 
Pfeffel, a fabulist, 80. 
Platen, Count, 150. 

Prutz, living writer on literature, poet, 159. 

Eabener, friend of Klopstock, 79. 

Eanke, historian, 185. 

nationalism, said to date from Lessing, 92. 

Raumer, historian, 187. 

Renner, a didactic poem by Trimberg, 52. 

Shakspeare contrasted with the German drama, 86. 

Rhyme, introduced by Otfried from the Latin Church-hymns, supersedes 

alliterative poetry, 33. 
Richter, or Jean Paul, 107. 
Riickert, poet, Orientalist, 150. 
Sachs, Hans, the principal Meistersanger, 59. 
Schelling, recent philosopher, 178. 
Shenkendork, lyric poet, 152, 
Schiller, his life and works, 109-124. 
Schlegel, Augustus W. } a poet and critic, 148. 

„ Friedrich, Romantic writer — Philosophy of History, 149. 
Schlosser, historian, 188. 
Saxon School, founded by Gottsched, 78. 
Simplicissimus, a novel of the time of the religious war, 74. 
Sturm und Drang, drama by Klinger, 82. 
Strieker, author of " Amis," 52. 
Strauss, David, writer on theology, 182. 
Tabulatur, or the rules of Meister-Gesang, 56. 
Tauler, mystical theologian, 62. 

Theuerdank, allegory on the courtship of the Emperor Maximilian, 61. 

Tieck, romantic composer of tales, 150. 

Uhland, recent ballad writer, 154. 

Ulfilas, bishop of the Visigoths, his Bible, 25. 

Veldecke, first minstrel, 41. 

Voss, poet of Gottingen — Homer, Louise, 152. 

Wieland, novelist, and author of " Oberon," 104. 

Winckelmann, artist and art critic, 141. 

War of the Wartburg, a contest of minstrels in 1207, 37. 



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